Eigth and State

I met a japanese man in a foreign city. I told him where I was from. This is what he said. "I've been there. That's where baseball player Pete Rose is from. And you have Riverfront Stadium on the Ohio River, and that big arch."

^--- Put up a sign visible from I-74 and I-75. Thousands of people pass right by Northside, and I suspect that very few of them have actually been there.

More, please! I like #8, the street life. The landmarks are awesome, too. Thanks for posting!

The "Diver down" series is Sycamore hill. The L&N is still there, closed to cars and known as the "purple people bridge." Oh the memories of the Central Trust tower!

Bacharach, Germany

1946: Ridership peaks as Americans take 23.4 billion trips on trains, buses and trolleys. 1960: Ridership dips to 9.3 billion with the rise of the highway system. 1972: Use hits a low of 6.5 billion trips. 1997: Ten years ago, 8.4 billion trips were taken. 2006: Ridership surpasses 10.1 billion. Hey, looks like ridership bottomed out about the same time that U.S. oil production peaked. I have to wonder what the stats would look like if airlines were added.

I see you started the list close to home. :-)

^---- If you get out of your car and walk across the bridge, you can probably feel it shake under the automobile load. This is true of any bridge, particularly the longer spans. Go to the Kentucky side of the Brent Spence and lean up against the concrete piers. You can feel those move as well.

No one fully understood the effect that automobiles would have on cities, even in the 1940's. This is almost funny now, but it's absolutely true: The Cincinnati Metropolitan Master Plan of 1948 showed a preliminary idea of what the highway system would look like. That was in the pre-Interstate days, and the highways were named Northwest Expressway, Northeast Expressway, etc., but I will refer to them by their common names today. Here's what the plan showed in 1948: I-74 was shown essentially in its present location. I-75 was shown essentially in its present location, north of the Ohio River. It did not enter Kentucky. I-71 was shown essentially in its present location, north of the Ohio River. It did not enter Kentucky. I-275 followed Springdale Road from I-74 to I-71, roughly 1/4 of the circle that it is today, and,.... (Drumroll) There was no Brent Spence bridge. I-71 and I-75 connected directly to the Suspension Bridge!

From the archives: This is a photo of me at a previous job on an Ohio bridge in 1999. This one was a privately owned bridge on a 10-year inspection cycle. Here are some co-workers inspecting a bridge in another state.

I know of two places where a railroad main line runs down a street: LaGrange, Kentucky and Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Thanks for the photos.

Here's a funny story. I drove to Gilbert Avenue today to check out the streetcar rails. There is some construction going on in the center of the street, and the streetcar rails are exposed. I parked, walked to the center, and stood on the tracks to take some photos. A guy who happened to be driving by stopped his car next to me and asked if they were bringing the streetcars back!

^---- Was there today and saw the sign on the door. I wonder why? Was it busy after 7:00?

Here is some more fun with numbers. I am only considering Cincinnati because I am more familiar with it. 12,575,000 CBD / 36,281,000 metro = 34% The CBD contains 34% of the metro office space, or roughly 1 of 3 office workers work downtown. The CBD measures about 3500 feet x 4000 feet. I used my own definition of the CBD, and scaled the distances off of a map. The area is bounded by Thrid Street, 12th street, John Street, and Broadway and contains 81 city blocks. Two of those blocks are occupied by highways. I am NOT counting FFW and the riverfront, Broadway commons, most of Over-the-Rhine or the West End. 3,500' x 4000' = 14,000,000 square feet. FAR = Floor Area Ratio = 36,281,000 / 14,000,000 = 2.6 Assuming that buildings take up half of the area and streets take up the other half, Average number of stories = 36,281,000 / 7,000,000 = 5.18 Disclaimer: the CBD boundaries may vary slightly. Only commercial space is counted. Hotels, residential, government buildings, etc., are not counted. On the flip side, parking areas east of Broadway, on the riverfront, etc., are not counted either. Please don't get picky. I am trying to keep it simple. The surprising thing is that the average building height is only 6 stories! Therefore, by covering half of the area with 6 story buildings and leaving the other half for streets, Cincinnati could have the same amount of floor space without skyscrapers. The massing would be similar to Paris, France. Food for thought. :-)

At one time I dreamed of a downtown rail hub, and an uptown bus hub. So, I read that the typical transit system of any kind breaks down by ridership like this: 60% home to work 30% home to shopping 10% everything else. Therfore, if you have a residential area, a shopping area, and an employment area on the same line, you should be able to serve a lot of trips. On the contrary, connecting two entertainment destinations, two employment centers, or two residential neighborhoods won't get you many rides. How many people live uptown and work downtown, or vice versa?

The Mill Creek in Caldwell Park is said to be the only part of the Mill Creek that has not been artificially channelized or straightened.

My grandfather took me to that slide when I was about 8 years old, and told me that when he was my age he used to ride the slide. I also remember some black boxes with handholes that one could reach into and feel objects inside without being able to see them. There was a turtle shell and things like that.

Wow. I worked on some of those projects, but I haven't been to Oxford in over a year. It's neat to see the finished buildings. Thanks for posting.

Rob - Sorry I don't have a source. I am going by memory. I do not know if that number includes consumption by the U.S. military outside of the United States, for example. I think it refers to all liquid petroleum consumed in the United States divided by the population of the United States. Our oil consumption has been growing, but at a decreasing rate. Our population has been growing faster. Dividing oil consumption, in barrels, by the population gives you a per-capita oil consumption. If I am not mistaken, this number peaked around 1980. If I am not mistaken, it includes all consumption, including industrial energy use and materials feedstock. It does NOT include use to manufacture products in foreign countries that are sold in the United States. Thus, if China uses a barrel of oil to make and transport plastic toys to the United States, that is not counted. This makes it a bit more complicated now that I think of it, as we import so much. Oh well.

I can imagine,... "Son, back in my day we had to MAKE our own cameras..." Great work, again.

What else can you tell about the Mullins Quarry?

^---- The United States consumption of oil per capita peaked around 1980. No one seems to have noticed that we are "poorer" now than we were in 1970.

Jake's idea of making better use of the Clay Wade Bailey bridge has some merit. Just compare traffic on the two bridges on mid-afternoon. The Brent Spence southbound approaches are backed up for miles. The Clay Wade Bailey is nearly empty. Eliminating the I-75 ramps at Covington and improving access to the Clay Wade Bailey bridge on the Ohio side may well take some traffic off of I-75, or at least clear up some of those weaving movements on the bridge. If you get on I-75 north in Covington, for example, and want to go west on U.S. 50, you have to move about 4 lanes left on the bridge itself. I am personally not excited about a new bridge. Why should we pay billions so that more commuters can travel between West Chester and Florence? It's the same old interstate highway and sprawl debate, except it involves a bridge.

There are still some working farms in the area, including a large one on McKelvey Road about a mile south. I am surprised you didn't mention Winton Woods lake or Winton Woods park. The lake was a project built by the federal government through the Army Corp. of Engineers, who leases the land to the Hamilton County Park District. The lake was impounded by a large dam in order to protect the downstream areas - the industrial Mill Creek Valley - from flooding. Officially, it is called the West Fork Mill Creek Dam. Strangely, the only way to drive to the dam is through residential subdivisions. Winton Woods Park is probably the most popular of the Hamilton County parks, and ironically, a survey by the park district showed that many of the users are from Butler County. Forest Park was also an experiment by the federal government, but as these federal projects fell out of fashion, the remaining land was sold to a developer, the Kanter Corporation, who finished Forest Park. There is a book about Forest Park by Zane Miller. Thanks again for another excellent post.