The North Shore Channel is a drainage canal built between 1907 and 1910 to flush the sewage-filled North Branch of the Chicago River down the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. A sluice gate usually prevents the canal from draining out to Lake Michigan in Wilmette, though the gate must be opened occasionally to prevent downstream flooding. The north end is near the Bahá'í House of Worship, and connects to the North Branch at the junction of several North Side community areas, such as Wilmette, Evanston, Skokie, Lincolnwood, and Chicago. In 1999, the system of which the canal is a part was named a Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium (as part of the Chicago wastewater system) by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Canoeing and kayaking are allowed; there are several put-in points along the length. In addition to water navigation there are walking and biking paths along nearly the entire length of the canal.
Surrounded by parks and steep, wooded banks, the canal also provides a corridor for local wildlife. Chicago's only waterfall (looks like a concrete spillway) in the city limits is just south of Foster Avenue, in Chicago's River Park, where the North Branch drops four feet through a dam into the canal.
Famous quotes containing the words north and/or channel:
“In England if something goes wrong—say, if one finds a skunk in the garden—he writes to the family solicitor, who proceeds to take the proper measures; whereas in America, you telephone the fire department. Each satisfies a characteristic need; in the English, love of order and legalistic procedure; and here in America, what you like is something vivid, and red, and swift.”
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947)
“There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)