We cover medical devices on a daily basis, and some of these gadgets get to be pretty big. Proton therapy systems, for example, use particle accelerators the size of buildings and U.S. Navy’s Mercy hospital ship is 894 feet (272 m) long. Yet, due to the prevalence of typhoid fever and other diseases, more than 100 years ago the city of Chicago undertook a massive public health project of reversing its river to stop the contamination of Lake Michigan, the source of its drinking water. Here’s an interesting video describing the situation that led to the project and what it took to accomplish it:
More from The Atlantic Cities: Visualizing the Chicago River Reversal