CHICAGO — One of the most picturesque views of Chicago comes from a camera out in the lake — set up on one of the city's water cribs.
Since 2000, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has operated a camera on the Harrison-Dever Crib about 2.75 miles offshore of Downtown.
The Axis P5415-E PTZ camera takes images of the city once every 10 minutes and uploads to the administration's website, project manager Ron Muzzi said.
The images are mainly used to monitor wave heights, Muzzi said, and sailors during the summer frequently check the website to see if it's a good day to take the boat on the water.
"And, of course, it provides a great view of the Chicago skyline," Muzzi said.
Breathtaking shot of Chicago skyline at twilight tonight from @NOAA_GLERL webcam from Chicago Crib 3 miles offshore. https://t.co/Etfd1osAya pic.twitter.com/NbeuHrB4Mj
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) February 14, 2017
The crib camera has been replaced at least once, Muzzi said. The current version allows officials to pan up and down, and side to side, and zoom in and out of spots. Each photo is a 1920-buy-1080 pixel image, Muzzi said.
The Chicago crib web cam is one of several on the Great Lakes operated by the administration Uses of those web cams vary from surfers checking out footage to officials monitoring whether there's a large algae bloom cover on Lake Erie. The cameras are part of the administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory real-time meteorological observation network.
"The cameras give us a visual picture of what's going on, which is always helpful," Muzzi said.
Chicago's streak of #Maybruary weather is over! The 60s are history, in their place is 30s, rain, & low clouds as seen on @NOAA_GLERL's cam pic.twitter.com/GPQ7GoPjqh
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) February 24, 2017
The Harrison-Dever Crib also has a weather station that monitors wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, dew point and relative humidity, Muzzi said.
Using tunnels and pipes that run under the lakebed, the cribs have supplied the city with its drinkable water for 150 years — saving Chicagoans from downing heavily polluted water that flowed from the Chicago River near the shoreline.
Engineer Ellis F. Chesbrough dreamed of offshore cribs sucking clean water out of the lake and pumping it through underground tunnels into city pumping stations. The first tunnel — where men dug clay and dumped it into a cart pulled by a mule — was completed in 1866, according to the Tribune. The crib, made of wood, began operation a year later. It was built on land and floated into the water, Mahoney said.
There are water cribs currently still in the lake, stretching from Wilson Avenue to 68th Street. They are 2-4 miles off the shoreline. Chicago Water Management spokesman Gary Litherland told DNAinfo Chicago in 2016 he can't say which ones are operational or where the ones that do work send their water to. That's a "security issue," he said.
In 2004, Gapers Block reported the active cribs were the Wilson Avenue crib, the Four Mile Crib, the Harrison-Dever Crib and the 68th Street crib. It's certain at least one of them pumps water into James W. Jardine Water Purification Plant, which was completed in 1964 and is the largest plant of its kind in the world. The Sun-Times reported in 2014 that the plant is one of Chicago's main terrorist targets.
