North Shore Channel

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. The sewage carrying duty has been largely taken over by the Chicago Deep Tunnel, but there are still occasional discharges due to heavy rains.GeographyThe North Shore Channel flows from Lake Michigan to the North Branch of the Chicago River.A sluice gate usually prevents the canal from back-draining out to Lake Michigan in Wilmette, although the gate must be opened occasionally to prevent downstream flooding. The north end of the channel is near the Bahá'í House of Worship. The channel flows southwest, and then south, through or near Wilmette, Evanston, Skokie, and Lincolnwood, and into Chicago. The south end of the channel flows into the North Branch at approximately 5100 north and 3000 west in the Chicago street address numbering system. Chicago's only waterfall within the city limits, which looks like a concrete spillway, is in River Park, where the upper North Branch drops about through a dam into the confluence.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).