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American Experience

Elevating the City

In response to cholera and dysentery epidemics, the Chicago Board of Sewage Commissioners selected Ellis Sylvester Chesbrough to solve Chicago’s public health crisis. Chesbrough’s planned system relied on gravity flow, but downtown streets were too low to drain into the river. New sewers raised the city's streets as much as 10 feet. The challenge then was to raise the buildings.

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The Presidents: LBJ (Part 2)
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Follow LBJ from rural Texas to his ascendancy to the presidency after the assassination of JFK.
The Presidents: LBJ (Part 1)
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Part of the award-winning The Presidents collection.
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