There are a great many dates that will live long in the history of Chicago, from the ending of historic sporting droughts to expositions that had monumental influences on the city’s evolution. There is one date, however, that has gone down in recent Chicago history for the most bizarre of reasons.
If you’re a seasoned local you may well be aware that this week saw the anniversary of the infamous bridge feces incident in which the Dave Matthews Band tour bus accidentally dumped 800 pounds of waste onto an architectural river tour that was passing under the Kinzie Street Bridge.
To this day Chicagoans have endless questions as to why and how it all went down but to make sure the day lives in infamy a dedicated plaque was installed to honor the day on Tuesday, 19 years since it happened on Tuesday, August 8, 2004.
The Riot Fest Historical Society, whose legitimacy as a historical society is questionable, was behind the commemorative sign which appeared on the Kinzie Street Bridge this Tuesday.
The dedicated plaque read:
On the afternoon of Aug 8. 2004. At this very location, the Dave Matthews band tour bus emptied the septic tank over the Chicago River drenching passengers on a boat tour with 800 pounds of human poop. No one died that day. But many wish they had.
It’s not the first sign to appear on the bridge mentioning the event with other more makeshift signs popping up on the bridge in the past.
For those wanting to know why it happened, the Chicago Tribune reported in 2005 that the bus driver admitted to emptying the septic tanks going over the bridge by accident thus unintentionally covering 100 sightseers riding an open-deck tourist boat below.
The Chicago Tribune reported that passengers on the boat described “a downpour of foul-smelling, brownish-yellow slurry that ruined their clothes and made several of them sick.”
Why it was dumped? How it was dumped? Why there was so much waste held on the bus? Your guess is as good as ours.
[Featured image from Riot Fest]