Navy Pier opened in 1916 as a municipal wharf and cargo facility, extending half a mile into Lake Michigan. The 3,300-foot pier handled freight steamers and excursion boats until the Saint Lawrence Seaway diverted commercial traffic in 1959.
By the 1970s the structure sat largely dormant, its sheds and warehouses awaiting demolition or reinvention. A $150 million overhaul in the mid-1990s converted the pier into a public recreational corridor, and the boat docks at its eastern tip became the city's busiest departure point for river tours.
Today the pier anchors the confluence of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. More than nine million visitors pass through its gates each year, many bound for architecture cruises that trace the river's main and south branches. The waterway itself is an engineering artifact: reversed in 1900 to flow away from the lake, it runs through a canyon of skyscrapers designed by Sullivan, Mies, Goldberg, and Pelli. Chicago boat tours from navy pier guide passengers beneath 37 moveable bridges, past the Merchandise Mart's two-block footprint, and along the site of Fort Dearborn, the frontier garrison that predated the city.
Operators on the river interpret facades in real time. The Wrigley Building's clock tower, clad in six shades of terracotta, signals the northern boundary of the Loop. Across the water, 333 West Wacker Drive wraps a green-glass curtain wall around a bend in the channel. Farther west, the twin corncob towers of Marina City rise 587 feet, each apartment floor cantilevered from a central concrete core. River cruises departing Navy Pier offer unobstructed sight lines to 77 West Wacker, Aqua Tower's undulating balconies, and the Trump International's stainless-steel spire.
The boats themselves range from open-air vessels seating 80 to climate-controlled decks accommodating 400 passengers. Most architecture tours run 75 to 90 minutes and loop back to the pier. Evening departures align with the city's bridge lighting, installed in 2008. Weekend mornings see shorter wait times; weekday afternoons between May and September often require advance reservations.
1 hr 30 min
