Chicago's 1849 Flood

Paul Petraitis posted
Here's the only copy I've seen of Polycarpus Von Schneidau's daguerreotype of the aftermath of the March 12, 1849 "spring freshet" flood that damaged bridges and dock facilities from Peoria to Chicago...its our town's oldest photograph!

While reading about Chicago bridges, I read about a flood that washed away several of the bridges. Back then, when the Des Plaines River would flood, the river water would flow across Mud Lake and into the Chicago River. And, of course, back then the Chicago River still flowed through downtown to Lake Michigan. As we are reminded during heavy rains and the flooding of the homes on a peninsula in Des Plaines, the watershed of the Des Plaines River is large enough to easily overflow its banks near Chicago.

When they built the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, in some sections the contractor was paid to dig a new channel for the Des Plaines River. to build a flood control levee along is east side, and then to dig the CS&SC channel.