The Chicago River has a complicated history. For more than a century, it absorbed factory waste, raw sewage, and runoff from the city’s meatpacking industry until it became one of the most polluted ...

The Chicago River was once a heavily polluted mess, a source of deadly diseases like cholera and typhoid fever. The waterway was so dirty that engineers famously reversed its direction in 1900 so it ...

For most of us, the thought of jumping into a river, especially one in a major city, is downright inconceivable. Between pollution, sewage and runoff, city waterways are considered almost as nasty as ...

From reversing the flow of its river to pioneering the steel-framed skyscraper, Chicago has repeatedly reinvented itself ...

CHICAGO—Krystyna Kurth likes to begin her tours of the river cutting past the city’s post-industrial area with a word association game. Kurth, coordinator of conservation action at the Shedd Aquarium, ...

This month, hundreds of Chicagoans will do something that would have been unthinkable a generation ago: Dive into the Chicago River for an organized open-water swim, the first since 1926. The ...

Efforts to improve the “swimmability” of urban areas are gaining global traction, from Paris to Chicago Swimmable Cities is a global alliance of local government officials, experts and advocates ...

Explore 8 family-friendly Chicago boat adventures, from fireworks and skyline sails to DIY river tours and kayaking, with ...

More than 250 swimmers jumped into the Chicago River on Sunday morning, marking the first open-river swim in the once-polluted urban waterway in nearly a century. After a false start last year, the ...

Before hundreds of swimmers are set to jump into the Chicago River in September, organizers and advocates say they are taking a “victory lap” of their own. To address safety, organizers said they will ...