As someone who grew up along the shores of Lake Michigan this was an informative and fascinating read.

For such a simple seeming project, taking water from over there and bringing it over here, there have to be a million ways this could have ended badly. Author Benjamin Sells has not only done the hard labour of discovering all this information but also the dauntless task of putting it together in a way that makes it readable for the average reader, rather than simply a history book for engineers. I wouldn’t be able to repeat the feat with justs this book but I feel like I could hold my own in a conversation, thanks to Sells’ hard work.
I don’t often find myself singing the praises of non-fiction books because they can be too dry or you have authors who feel they must include every single fact to justify learning it. I feel like if I had been a Chicago resident some of the names might have made more sense so I have to take my own personal ignorance into account when I have questions. I would have enjoyed a bit about what strides were being made in similar problems during this time but what was given was plenty. The balance between storytelling and factual drive was well balanced and I can only hope that other readers will feel the same way.

*This eBook was provided by NetGalley and NorthWestern University Press in exchange for honest feedback*

I received a free electronic copy of this history of the Chicago water works from Netgalley, Benjamin Sells, and the Northwestern University Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.

This is an excellent history of the Chicago water and sewage problems in the early 20th century. Benjamin Sells covers the difficulties of providing water to a community doubling in population every couple of years, with no outlet for sewage except into nearby waterways - the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, which of course were also the sources of available water. The solution, as proposed by engineer Ellis Chesbrough, was a two mile long, 6 foot tunnel dug out into Lake Michigan, taking the water outlet out past the contamination of the local sewage outlets. They said it couldn't be done. Nearly everyone said it couldn't be done. Chicago proved that not only could it be done, it could be expanded over the twentieth century as needed to keep up with the continually exploding population of Chicago. A very interesting and informative read.

I love anything Chicago History. However, this might be a bit too detailed and engineering heavy for many, which is why I leave the three stars. Still, I was fascinated with the feat of trying to get fresh water to a city that was constantly growing by leaps and bounds by being brave enough to bury a tunnel two miles out to into lake Michigan, then a shaft right back up to the water level and build a structure (called a crib) that was so large that it required it's own lighthouse to serve as the intake.

Not only that, but that particular engineering feat was working and in place for almost 70 years. Think about that, something designed by an amazing man, Ellis Sylvester Chesbrough....a man with no formal college level education, just years of assisting and looking over the shoulder of man who had such education, came up with an ingenious solution to the fundamental problem that was keeping Chicago from being one of our great cities. Not only that, but he convinced the powers that be that it would work and to back his idea.

Chesbrough wasn't just responsible for Chicago becoming a great city, his thinking, and projects touched upon and brought modern sewage and water supply systems throughout the world.

I am often in awe of the feats that were attempted as early as the 1850's and long before we had a complete understanding and access to things like CAD, or a stronger grasp of geology and everything. Of course, even when engineers knew more, they were still not Gods and often hampered by city leaders, hubris, and the almighty dollar. (Not long ago, I read Floodpath: The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th-Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles and that showed that we still had much to learn and competing needs to be met. or even the latest Oroville Dam emergency in California)

This is a brief outline of the project that brought Chesbrough, to Chicago in 1855 and he, along with his projects, in turn, became the major transformers of the great city of Chicago.

Very interesting read. I lived in Chicago and never new about the tunnel.

This is one of those books about a topic I never even knew I was interested in. Indeed, I had barely even heard of the subject before I saw the book description. But during the mid 19th century, one of the biggest issues limiting the growth of Chicago was the issue of clean water-and its nasty cousin, sewage disposal. This book outlines the construction of a tunnel under Lake Michigan which helped solve that problem.

=== The Good Stuff ===

* It was a deceptively simple problem. Chicago needed a supply of drinking water. Conveniently, Chicago sits right next to one of the largest sources of fresh water on the planet, the Great Lakes. It would seem a simple problem to pipe some water from the lake into the municipal water system. But the problem was really sewage. Chicago dumped raw sewage, industrial and slaughterhouse waste, and just about anything else into the Chicago River, and thus Lake Michigan. To solve the problem of polluted water near the shoreline, the city conceived of a 2-mile-long intake tunnel well into Lake Michigan.

* The book describes the struggles needed to build this tunnel. As anyone familiar with Chicago politics can imagine, just getting the various governments on board was quite the challenge. There were also technical issues related to the construction of the tunnel and the associated water-works, and numerous other issues, both scientific and legislative to be worked through. All of these were covered, although in different levels of detail.

* The technical aspects of the tunnel were described, including techniques of construction and summaries of the technologies involved. I got a feel for how the boring was accomplished, as well as the masonry construction of the tunnel lining. Even more complex was the “crib”, which served as the water intake 2 miles offshore in Lake Michigan. While I would have liked more detail on these areas, it was enough to understand the basic techniques and serve as a map for further reading.

* Finally, Benjamin Sells introduces us to Ellis Sylvester Chesbrough, the engineer who conceived and build the tunnel. A man of vision, engineering ability and stubbornness, without Chesbrough, the tunnel, and probably the city of Chicago as we know it, never would have existed.

* Sells has a easy to read writing style, and the narrative keeps moving. I read the book in a single sitting, and was left wanting more.


=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===

* The author insists on giving us many names of characters that only appear once, and have no bearing on the story other than they voting for a certain city council resolution on some aspect of the project. It became “skip-over” reading.

* Some of the facts, particularly the financial ones, are a bit tough to understand in context. Without googling, I have no idea how much money $100,000 in 1860 was really worth. It would have been nice to include some benchmarks to help the reader understand. Similarly, the book takes place in a vacuum. Much of the work was performed in the 1860’s, a period during which much was going on in North America, some of which had to affect the tunnel and its finances.
* Finally, as an engineer, I would have preferred some clearer definitions of how things were built. There was enough to get the gist of how the tunnel was built, but not enough detail to really understand the technology and the struggles of construction. I suspect that much of this was lost to history. Similarly, while the ultimate fate of the tunnels was disclosed, I would have appreciated a couple paragraphs on the water system in modern-day Chicago.

=== Summary ===

All things considered, I enjoyed the book. I would have preferred more detail on some of the technical aspects, but considering that I never even knew the tunnels existed when I started the book, I did learn a lot.

I would recommend the book to anyone with a curiosity about how things work, especially in the 19th century, and anyone curious about how Chicago went from a mud flat to the “second city”.

Interesting book that engineers, history buffs and local residents would enjoy.