![]() Additional answers to frequently asked questions about the new vaccine will continue to be updated at /Boost. Nearly all (99.8%) of COVID-19 new cases in the U.S. are BA.4 or BA.5. The new vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are being called “bivalent boosters,” meaning they are a mix of two versions of the vaccine. Residents can also call the City’s COVID-19 call center at 31. For those who need help finding a nearby site, is a free online service that you can use to search for pharmacies and providers that offer vaccination. The City of Chicago has already been allocated approximately 150,000 doses of the updated vaccines, with more following in the coming weeks. The vaccines will be available this week to Chicago residents 12 years and older who have already completed a primary vaccine series. But maybe, just maybe, that audacious plan back in the 1850s paved the way for the city of today.The City of Chicago and Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced that Chicago is rolling out two updated COVID-19 vaccines designed specifically to target the Omicron subvariants, in light of final approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There are many reasons why Chicago is a hotbed of architectural and engineering triumphs. The underground highways of Lower Wacker. The many bridges across the Chicago River. The entire downtown was destroyed only 16 years after the plan was decided.īut as you wander that downtown, look at all the incredible feats of engineering in the buildings around you. Sadly, the buildings they lifted would not survive for long-not because of any deficiencies in the lifting process, but because of the Great Chicago Fire. They pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and rose from the mud. The plan, which would seem bold and daring in many cities even today, was a success. Of course, the enterprising owners of businesses operating in these buildings didn’t want to miss out on business, so many continued to serve customers even as the buildings were rolling down the street. They put these old wooden buildings on rollers and drew them by horse to the edges of town. Not because it was too difficult, but because some of the buildings no longer fit with where the city was going. Not every building went through the process. The process was gradual enough that business continued in the buildings throughout. They placed 6000 jackscrews under the one-acre block between Lake, Clark and LaSalle streets, estimated at 35,000 tons in weight, and raised the whole thing over four days-buildings, sidewalks and all. Eventually, they even figured out how to raise an entire block at once. Entire masonry buildings were raised in the air. Over the next couple of decades, buildings were lifted up using jackscrews and the occasional hydraulic lift. Which is why they lifted all the buildings as well. So far, straightforward enough.īut by increasing the height of the streets, suddenly the buildings around them would be half-buried-or, at least, you’d need to step up to the street from your front door. By raising the streets a few feet, they’d have the room to add the sewers. ![]() The plan was to install the sewers under the streets. You raise everything up to make room for the sewer system. Chicago was barely above the water table, and underground sewers couldn’t work at that level.ĭo you just abandon the city and start again on more practical ground? Not if you’re Chicago. Sewers need to go underground, and they drain down. The marsh on which the city was built was trying to claim back its territory.Īfter a number of failed attempts to fix the problem (including planking the streets with wood), the city decided the only long-term solution was to install a sewer and stormwater system.īut in Chicago, that was no easy feat. The environment caused hygiene and health problems, including an 1854 cholera outbreak which killed 1 in 20 residents. Pools of standing water formed all over the city. The streets turned to mud, stranding horses, carriages and humans alike. The powers that be hadn’t really thought about how to ensure water and sewage drained properly. The city was only 4 feet above Lake Michigan at most, built on a swamp. In the middle of the 19th century, Chicago was not the shining, modern metropolis it is today. And it might just say a lot about that early Chicago character. It was a titanic feat of engineering, imagination and sheer moxie. Straight up, using hydraulic jacks and jackscrews. They lifted the whole city up in the air.īetween four and fourteen feet. Walking down the magnificent streets of downtown Chicago, towering skyscrapers on all sides of you, you probably couldn’t guess the incredible scheme the city carried out in the area some 160 years before.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |