Thrilling Thursday in Chicago

Thursday was beautiful, but chilly in Chi-town. Hubby & I walked downtown to the river, under the bridge of Michigan & Wacker streets. It is there that you pick up river cruises. The Mercury cruises were closed. We took the Chicago Architectural Foundation's 90 minute cruise. You can take one of the lake AND the river, and on Wednesdays there is a fireworks cruise. But Hubby enjoys informational & historical tours, as do I. He especially enjoys architecture, including Frank Lloyd Wright. (More on him later.) The river cruise offers a tour of Chicago's architecture, albeit not in historical order.
Four hundred years ago, Native Americans used the Chicago River for travel & trade. Then in the mid-1600s, French fur traders made their living there. When settlers arrived in the 1830s, the river was very different from what we see today. It was slow moving, marshy, and emptied into Lk Michigan. The river eventually became a symbol of agriculture, commercial & industrial strength. With railroads coming in the latter half of the 19th century, it moved shipping away from the river, & the city continued to grow as a major business area. The river now flows westward, but didn't always. Early residents polluted the waters by dumping animal, industrial & HUMAN waste there because there wasn't an adequate sewage system. Chicago's solution to their problem was to change the flow of the river. It took 11 years to do it, but a new 28-mile canal opened. This connected the south branch to the Des Plaines river. The canal's depth was lower than the river, so it pulled clean lake water into the river. Industrial traffic continued to shift over time. It wasn't until the 1970s that interest in the river came about again, thanks to a volunteer citizens' group called Friends of the Chicago River. Due to their efforts, the river's status of "toxic" has changed to "polluted", & ordinances & guidelines have been established re: construction & beautification. Since the 1990s, new residences & hotels have been added. Old buildings have been turned into new commercial use or reused as residences.
Now the CAF offers tours year-round, including walking tours. Hubby & I can attest to the fantastic job the docents do. The boat tour runs from May to November. Other tours can be taken almost every day of the year. Highlights include: Merchandise Mart, Marina City, Tribune Tower, Lake Point Tower, the Navy Pier, the Sears Tower, and the soon-to-be Chicago Spire (just announced Friday, the 17th: architect Santiago Calatrava & the builder are in dispute, so all is halted on building it right now until a settlement is reached.) The CAF is a not-f0r-profit organization. Check them out at www.architecture.org. If you head to Chicago, this is something worth doing!!!
~sher