Built in 1907 to 1910, the North Shore Sanitary Channel was a purely functional civil engineering project.  Given its utilitarian origins, the “Canal” as it is known to locals, has never provided much in the way of inspiration.  Ignored by songwriters in favor of the Wabash, Suwanee, or even Erie Canal, it ranks visually somewhere between eyesore  and homely second cousin.
Nonetheless, the Canal is an honest-to-goodness place.  And like other places, the Canal has an essence that seeps from the world of conscious observation into subconscious imagination.  In this transmission, we experience the place as expressing mood, resonating  with our outlook, and occasionally manifesting an unexpected beauty.  Having grown up next to a semi-polluted waterway, I experience a biographical affinity to the canal that others may not.  More generally, as one who identifies with “underdogs” of all sorts, exploring this neglected place has become a small act of vindication.