Description
| Scarce, if any evidence remains today, but in the latter part of the nineteenth century–even though the area was active for only eight months of the year–the Chicago River Watercourse, with some 25 miles of channels and inlets, had become a teeming labyrinth of waterborne commerce. Measured in ship clearances, then totaling some 20,000 a year, Chicago had become the fourth largest port in the world. |