lake michigan and chicago river

There was a time when the Chicago River did what all rivers do when confronted with a downhill run and a large body of water at the end of that run: it flowed east into Lake Michigan. Then, as the city grew with people, railroads, more people, more freight—both rail and ship—more people, manufacturing, retail, people, the river became the premier sewer of the region, moving all its waste into Lake MIchigan. Oh, my! Polluting the lake! What do we do?!?! Reverse the flow of the river, of course, to move the stuff somewhere else. Here is a concise history of the river from the Encyclopedia of Chicago. And here is a USGS map of the river system today.

Ah, what we do to clean up our messes, eh?

The Chicago Harbor Lighthouse was first built in 1893 at the mouth of the Chicago River. In 1917, after the Navy Pier was built, it was moved out here at the end of the breakwater in the harbor.

glass fabric

On the Navy Pier in Chicago is a museum of stained glass. To walk through the pier is to walk through the museum; it is unavoidable. And that is a very good thing. The windows are amazing pieces, many from buildings that no longer stand in Chicago, and some from other places in the country.
One that I particularly liked is The Hollywood Angel, from a cemetery in Hollywood, CA, (um, yeah):

She looks very stern, eh? Like, "You think you're going WHERE?!"

Anyway, look at the feathers on her wing:

That's folded glass.

And look at this, her gown:

Glass layered to look like fabric. And then there's the "embroidered" edge; lead and glass that our eye knows is really a ribbon of some sort sewn on.