Solve the Sanitation Crisis of Chicago!
During the 19th century the elevation of the Chicago area was just a few feet higher than the shoreline of Lake Michigan. For many years there was little or no naturally occurring drainage from the city surface. This lack of drainage caused unpleasant living conditions. Standing water harbored pathogens that caused numerous epidemics including typhoid fever and dysentery, culminating in the 1854 outbreak of cholera that killed six percent of the city’s population. The crisis forced the city to take the drainage problem seriously. In 1856, engineer Ellis S. Chesbrough drafted a plan for the installation of a citywide sewerage system and submitted it to the city council, which adopted the plan.
