RE: [at-l] ECDT...

[ryan patrick bowles <rpbowles@midway.uchicago.edu>]

> 
> There most certainly is an Eastern Continental Divide, where waters on one
> side flow east to the Atlantic Ocean, and waters on the other side flow west
> or south to the Mississippi River or Gulf of Mexico.  The ECD runs through:
> 
The Eastern CD does something interesting in the Chicago area of
Illinois- it disappears.  About 100 years ago, the Chicago River was so
polluted that it was causing problems in the Chicago city water supply in
Lake Michigan.  The city engineers decided the best solution was to
reverse the flow of the river, and have it flow west into the Illinois
River and then into the Mississippi (thereby polluting the water sources
of many other towns along the Illinois river, but that's beside the
point).  The river direction change was accomplished through a set of
canals connecting the two rivers, and was completed over twenty years
later.  A barrier was erected at the mouth of the Chicago River to prevent
most of the mixing of the river and Lake Michigan, but there is still some
water flow out of the lake into the river.  
				Ryan

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