Saturday 15 March 2014

St Patrick's - Chicago - 15th March 2014

As part of a more than fifty-year-old Chicago tradition, the Chicago River is dyed green in observance of St. Patrick's Day.

The tradition of dyeing the river green arose by accident when some plumbers used fluorescein dye to trace sources of illegal pollution discharges. The parade committee has since switched to a mix of forty pounds of powdered vegetable dye.

The dyeing of the river is still sponsored by the local plumbers union. The dye takes days to dissipate.

Here you can see where the dye was first added to the river
Speed boats run up and down the river to mix the dye
 
 


8 comments:

  1. Beautiful Pictures Dave!

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  2. Excellent snap and information on dyeing ,I couldn't get those views of river even visiting there too. Thanks Dave.

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  3. Awesome! I have seen that once before in a picture but never knew thats why they did that.

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  4. Nandha RaveendranTuesday, March 18, 2014

    Again a Great Shots Dave!!!

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  5. Awesome pictures David.

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  6. There are a lot of reasons I like your blog, one of which is that I learn something each time.

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  7. Interesting information and nice pictures. I have been to this river once, but I was not aware of this event then. Thanks for sharing this blog and feels good to see a flowing river to a frozen one.

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