Watch The City's Icebreaker Tugboat Smash A Frozen Chicago River

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jan 11, 2017 5:13PM

Nasty winters nevertheless always bring with them a few highlights: think snow-shoveling camaraderie and majestic lakefront ice palaces. Another cold-weather boon is getting to see one of Chicago’s oldest, most iconic water vessels in all its ice-shattering glory.

The James J. Versluis tugboat, built back in 1957, actually operates every day on the Chicago river, regardless of weather, according to Gary Litherland, spokesperson for the Water Management Department. But its most famous resume bullet point is icebreaker, which it got to show off again over the frosty weekend. The boat’s bow is specifically shaped to 45 degrees, which allows the tug to overtake and smash down frozen sections of the river. It’s a key component making sure river traffic can continue even on frigid days and it helps prevent the floodgates at the mouth of Lake Michigan from freezing over, as WBEZ notes. (When the freeze gets really nasty, the city has a $9 million icebreaker, operated by the Fire Department, it can call in, according to WBEZ.)

When it’s not smashing apart frozen chunks of ice, the James J. Versluis—which takes its name from a former director of the Water Department—can be seen generally “helping maintain the water system,” Litherland told Chicagoist. That includes assisting with lake and river surveys, maintain intakes, or moving barges for the Chicago Department of Transportation when necessary.

But it's the ice-smashing that gets our inner child grinning most, of course. Check out the mighty James J. Versluis in icy action in a clip uploaded to Instagram on Tuesday by Jack Brandtman, and in a YouTube clip from 2010.

[H/T Reddit]