Murals: I - Exploration II - Fort Dearborn III - The New City IV - Float Bridge and I & M Canal V - Three Swing Bridges VI - The Great Fire VII - Three Bridges VIII - Columbian Exposition IX - Reversal of the Waters X - Michigan Avenue Bridge XI - Grant Park and the Burnham Plan XII - A Century of Progress XIII - The South Branch XIV - The North Branch XV - The Main Branch XVI - The Riverwalk Artwork copyright 2000 Ellen Lanyon All rights reserved Acknowledgements by Ellen Lanyon Essay by Michael Rooks

IV - The Float Bridge and I & M Canal 1840: The Clark Street Bridge was the first of its kind to be built. By 1848 three more were added at Wells, Randolph and Kinzie Streets. All were destroyed by the Great Flood of 1849.Insets: upper left, 1836-48: Jolliet's dream to cut through the portage and thus create a waterway to the Gulf via the Mississippi was finally realized with the completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. It had required many laborers to hand dig the sixty-foot wide by six-foot deep waterway where transport barges had to be towed through the shallow waters. 1848: The Galena-Chicago Union Railroad was the first to serve Chicago.