The Milwaukee River Greenway: A Wealth of Nature in the Heart of the City

Author and Editor: Eddee Daniel Publisher: River Revitalization Project (2021) The city of Milwaukee owes its existence to its rivers. Indigenous villages gathered on the bluffs surrounding the bountiful estuary. Although the harbor, which gave access to Lake Michigan and points east, was the initial draw for Europeans, the budding settler community likewise faced inland, embracing the rivers that fed into it. A mighty industrial city grew around the confluence of the Menomonee River, the Kinnickinnic River, and the city's namesake, the Milwaukee River. The downtown banks of these rivers were quickly enveloped in factories, businesses, and, eventually, tall buildings. Like cities throughout the country, Milwaukee expanded outward from this center at a steady pace; dense urban neighborhoods organized within a typical grid of city streets—except for one unique feature … Slicing an organic swath through this orderly urban geometry, a ribbon of green space follows a river. Thanks to the en