Hey! Caption today’s Rearview photo by Rolour Garcia!
A sport that really never caught on: the very first (and last?) amphicar race on the Chicago River, 1965.
The amphicars raced 2.5 miles down the river, averaging 14 miles per hour.
That’s one way to beat downtown traffic.
Intersection of Diversey and Logan, c.1937, Chicago.
The Showboat Dixiana was a night club and cabaret docked on the river.
IDOT Collection
From Gapers Block last year:
For three years in the ’30s, the showboat Dixiana was moored on the Chicago River just south of the Diversey bridge. In 1937 it was to house a performance of Tobacco Road, but Mayor Kelly saw the play and banned it from Chicago. The Dixiana headed to Michigan City, IN, where it sank in the harbor.
When you think of the Chicago River, what springs to mind? Most likely, the bridge at Michigan Avenue, kayaking in the summer, architectural boat tours, and assuredly the famous reversal over a century ago. There’s a lot of river that extends beyond the downtown area, however — all 156 miles of it — most of which you may not recognize.
— Megan E. Doherty, reviewing Richard Wasserman’s Midstream: The Chicago River, 1999-2010
For the record, this is not how the river gets its green. For one thing, Shamrock Shakes are too pastel.
