The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s Centennial Fountain and it’s Water Arch over the Chicago River commemorate the District’s 100 years of protecting the water supply of Lake Michigan and the health of the people of Chicago and suburban Cook County.

The fountain symbolizes the waters of the Chicago region, which flow east through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, and west to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Linkage of these two great water systems at Chicago attracted commerce and destined the CIty to become a world metropolis.