Design
How Chicago Turned an Industrial Waste Site Into a Nature Lovers' and Cyclists' Paradise
The Big Marsh was once home to nine steel mills. Now it’s where bikes and rare birds roam.
A great blue heron looks out from a rocky outcropping over an emergent wetland. Across the open water, an egret stands still upon a log. A nearby tree is rumored to be the place where two bald eagles, often seen flying overhead, have settled.
If not for the shadows of long-abandoned smokestacks and the occasional passing truck and freight train, it would be easy to forget that this is Chicago.