Building the Canal to Save Chicago
Chapter 4 Photos
Finding Direction
A meeting of the Board of Trustees of the SDC in their offices in the Rialto Building on July 25, 1894. The board met twice per month doing most of their deliberations in several committees. By the time of this photograph, contacts for the excavation of the Main Channel had been awarded. Contracts for bridges and other structures were still ahead. (MWRD photo, disc 26, image 27)
Stephen St. in Lemont, 1895. The Santa Fe Railroad tracks cross in the foreground. Although work had begun on excavation of the Main Channel in Sec. 8 behind the camera, work wasn't yet underway to build a new road and railroad bridge and raise the railroad approach embankment. A viaduct would also be built for Stephen St. to pass under the railroad. In addition to Chicago, Joliet, and Lockport, Lemont was the only other major town along the channel route. (MWRD photo, Geiger set, image 301)