The Sanitary & Ship Canal fuses the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin. It is often considered an engineering marvel, enjoying its status as an emblem of the modernized world. We aren’t supposed to see the canal’s failures. Instead, private industries transferring freight on barges direct us to continue marveling at engineered solutions even as the canal bloats with pollution and its infrastructure crumbles.
Character of the Sanitary and Ship Canal
The Sanitary and Ship Canal is portrayed as a rapacious capitalist who will stop at nothing to make money. Such hubris propelled city leaders to undertake this engineering project. They didn’t consider the environmental impacts of artificially breaching the continental divide that separates the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River watershed. They also didn’t consider pollution impacts upon marginalized communities who live near the canal. They were only motivated by a voracious appetite for capital.
