Chicago River Tour

We went on a Chicago River Tour, a touristy if ever there was one, but we had an architectural history "expert" as the guide with a PA system, so we got some of the history and context of the buildings and, in general, the city itself.

The river had been long used as a dump for the agricultural run-off, and this wasn't seen as a problem until the city-use water intake, off shore in Lake Michigan, began to make people sick. That time, they just moved the intake farther out to "sea." A big rainstorm came along a few years (decades?) later, and people started getting sick again.

This time, they decided to change the course of the river, and realign where the dumping and waste run-off would occur. This time they were pretty much successful in their attempts to keep the populace's water safe for use. History...

So, for some of the buildings here, along the river-front, we have the Trump Tower, finished within the last five years, and now the second tallest building in Chicago. It's rather noticeable from a distance, but up close is difficult to feel the size.

Here are the corn-cob twins of the Marina City section of Chicago, one of the first attempts to bring living on the river into vogue. There are parking garages on the bottom floors, and even under the pilings is a parking zone for your boast, should you have one.

This behemoth is the now-defunct Mercantile Exchange Building, once the largest building in the world for business purposes. I believe it's condos now, but I could be wrong. It would be the largest business-purpose building in the world still, if it was used for that.

This was the main Montgomery Ward's warehouse, designed to mimic the river's edge, where clerks would roller-skate down the long corridors to fill orders for people who'd walk in. Montgomery Ward's invented the idea of catalogue shopping, eventually perfected by Sears Roebuck.

Here is a shot that's a favorite of river-tour patrons, with the Sears Tower centered. The guide had published a book of her Chicago photos, and an blue-sky shot of this perspective adorns the cover.

This is the closest neighbor to the Sears Tower, and is maybe half as tall. To draw attention away from the Sears Tower, it has what, from a distance, appears like a crown, and at night is lit up like crazy. The rounding crown-like part is visible in this picture, but not very easy to see.

This is a picture of the Sears Tower, with probably as many of the squares visible as possible. The idea behind this structure is like a handful of straws; nine square blocks soar upwards, two blocks end at 55 stories, some end at 66 stories, some more at 86, and the final two rise the full distance to 105 stories.

I can't remember the name of this building, but it won an informal newspaper-driven popularity contest as Chicagoans favorite building. The curved glass is quite beautiful.

This is one of Corrie's favorite vantages in Chicago; looking up at the Wrigley Building on the left with the Tribune Building still visible on the right. The Tribune Building has some flying buttresses, while the Wrigley deal looks like NYC City Hall, and was designed by a New Yorker.

The last picture I'm putting on this river tour post has near the center a building topped with a golden sphere. Originally, this was to be used as a docking point for dirigibles back when they thought blimps would be all the rage when it came to traveling. Sadly, no dirigible ever docked there. An experiment in New York with docking blimps at the Empire State Building went horribly awry.