Chicago, IL, Navy Pier vintage post card enhanced and restored by Scenes from the Past. A SFTP EXCLUSIVE! If you see this anywhere else on Zazzle, they stole it from us! This pier cost $4,000,000 to construct and is located at the northern mouth of the Chicago River. It extends 3,000 feet out into Lake Michigan and is about 300 feet wide. It is used for both recreational and civic purposes. It is located in the Streeterville neighbourhood of the Near North Side community area. It was a part of the Plan of Chicago developed by architect and city planner Daniel Burnham and his associates. As Municipal Pier #2 (Municipal Pier #1 was never built), Navy Pier was planned and built to serve as a mixed-purpose piece of public infrastructure. Its primary purpose was as a cargo facility for lake freighters, and warehouses were built up and down the pier. However, the pier was also designed to provide docking space for passenger excursion steamers, and in the pre-air conditioning era parts of the pier, especially its outermost tip, were designed to serve as cool places for public gathering and entertainment. The pier even had its own streetcar. Today, Navy Pier is Chicago's number one tourist attraction.