Take A Virtual Tour Of The Chicago River And Its History

CHICAGO, IL — More than two decades after he filmed his first televised Chicago River tour, which was also his first special for WTTW, Geoffrey Baer has watched the city's aqueous artery's role evolve. The third edition of Baer's tour premieres on WTTW Monday, and he told Patch it was his most personal exploration of the river yet.

"Now I'm near the end of my career. When I made the first show, I was near the beginning of my career," Baer said. "I think, reflecting back now, I really realize what a huge role the river played in my life. Not only because 30 years ago I became a docent for the Chicago Architecture Foundation – I've been giving river tours for almost 30 years – but way before that, as a child, the river played a big role in my life I was entirely unaware of."

Baer, an Evanston resident, grew up in Highland Park and Deerfield, where he lived less than a block from Deerfield Park District's Trail Tree Park.

"We would go back in the woods and explore around, follow the path. And not very far down the path there was this creek, we called it 'The Creek,'" he said, remembering playing hockey on its surface. "But eventually I found out that it was one of three forks of the North Branch of the Chicago River."

Baer travels all three branches of the river aboard six different vessels in the special. He travels from the Botanic Gardens and Skokie Lagoons in Glencoe and Winnetka in the north to the to the Sanitary and Shipping Canal in Lemont.

The history of the river is inextricably intertwined with that of the city of Chicago. The WTTW special covers everything from the city's first full-time resident, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, to the latest updates to the river — like, for instance, the fact that the recently opened Apple Store alongside the River Walk off Michigan Ave is on the site of du Sable's former home.

As the economy and character of Chicago have evolved, the city's relationship with the river has shifted as well.

"We've always admired the beauty of wild rivers, but I think rivers as a place to establish cities, historically, have always been considered working bodies of water," Baer said. "Even in the earliest days of Chicago, long before the canal, the river was the path that the Native Americans and the voyageurs took on long canoes for the fur trade. It was transportation and it was commerce."

Today's notion of the river as a scenic backdrop and a swanky place to live is relatively recent, and the departure of heavy industry from urban areas has been a major factor in the shift.

"It was the main street, it was a 'working' waterway," Baer explained. "It's natural it would evolve as commerce evolved...Along with that, just like any other urban river, comes pollution. And then, it really becomes thought of as the back alley, a sewage channel, a polluted waterway, and not something to thought of as an amenity."

But the special shows how groups like the Friends of the Chicago River have since worked to make the river safe enough to jump into. Partially as the result of lawsuits, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and the state and federal environmental protection agencies have taken major steps to improve water quality.

For instance, the MWRD turned the world's largest wastewater treatment facility, located in Cicero, into a resource recovery facility where phosphorus – both a pollutant and a valuable fertilizer – can be extracted and captured for eventual sale.

» Check out the six vessels Geoffrey Baer and his crew, including Producer Eddie Griffin and Associate Producer Erica Gunderson, used to travel the Chicago River

“Filming this River Tour was an experience I will never forget,” Griffin said. “Our rainy summer presented some interesting production challenges, but we hope we have captured the river in all its glory, told some surprising and compelling stories, and spotlighted portions of it that are not as well known.”

The website for the special launched at airtime. It includes a virtual tour of the river, an animated video explaining the history of the river's reversal and 360-degree videos, as well as drone footage captured during production. It also explores the history, development, famous structures and environmental challenges of the river in the future.

Repeat broadcasts of the tour have been are scheduled for Dec. 2, 7 and 10.

_{Top photo: Geoffrey Baer on a Chicago River boat tour | Courtesy WTTW}