I think I knew at one time. But, what is it?

 

street view: http://goo.gl/maps/CKtY

A support for the Bellevue incline.

A support for the Bellevue incline.

 

thanks. I don't know how I forget - I was thinking steps for some reason

I used to ride the bus up Clifton Avenue and saw that stone structure and wondered what it was.

 

One day I made it to the Ohio Book Store on Main Street after hearing that it has some neat Cincinnati books. I picked up Wagner and Wright's issue No. 4: inclines, and paged through it in the store. Right there in the book was a photo of that stone structure when it was still in service, supporting a truss bridge that held the incline tracks, and an incline vehicle that in turn carried a streetcar. I was hooked, and eventually acquired all ten of the Wagner and Wright books.

I used to ride the bus up Clifton Avenue and saw that stone structure and wondered what it was.

 

One day I made it to the Ohio Book Store on Main Street after hearing that it has some neat Cincinnati books. I picked up Wagner and Wright's issue No. 4: inclines, and paged through it in the store. Right there in the book was a photo of that stone structure when it was still in service, supporting a truss bridge that held the incline tracks, and an incline vehicle that in turn carried a streetcar. I was hooked, and eventually acquired all ten of the Wagner and Wright books.

 

Awesome! I'd love to have all ten too

Shorpy has a couple of pics of the incline.

 

http://www.shorpy.com/node/8235

 

http://www.shorpy.com/node/7545

 

 

Wow it looks so barren with no trees.

That was back in the clear-cut days. We went through a lot of wood back then.

lots of pics:

 

http://overtherhine.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/the-bellevue-incline-and-elm-street-steps/

Changed the title of the thread to reflect the topic of the post.

Epic blog post. Thanks.

Thanks for linking the blog post. Awesome!

They rebuilt the Clifton Ave. retaining wall in 2009 and it looks a lot better than it did.  I noticed the other day two planters were placed on either side of this support, but there aren't any plants in them. 

 

The streetcar line that was lifted by this incline traveled on Ohio Ave. north to McMillan and Calhoun.  That's why Ohio Ave. has a different character to it than, say, Wheeler.  An incline also lifted streetcars onto Fairview Ave., but this was the last of the inclines, built right when Italianate row buildings stopped being being built, which is why it has early 1900s single-family homes on it. 

If you're interested in a cool find there are some large walls up in the woods off of Fairview Park that are assumedly remnant of the original incline structure.

If you're interested in a cool find there are some large walls up in the woods off of Fairview Park that are assumedly remnant of the original incline structure.

 

Some remnants of the old Fairview incline are discernible and the park has a lot of stone walls built by the WPA. There is also an old wine cellar that is sealed.

^ With wine inside?

^only one way to find out.