The toll of progress

From a canal to a subway (kinda)
and now a main city thoroughfare

Central Parkway: 2001

CINCINNATI'S SUBWAY
• Great expectations

"I THINK THEY SHOULD..."

There have been plenty of hare-brained schemes over the years for Cincinnati’s abandoned subway. Here are some of them.

• Storage facility for the Army during World War II

• Industrial transportation and storage system

• Storage for breweries for grains and beer

• An underground shopping district

• Site location for a film needing subway scenes

• Wind tunnel research facility for the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Aerospace Engineering. Massive fans were set out near the entrances during the early 1990s and remained, unused and rusting, until around 1995.

• In 2000, fiber optic cable was installed into portions of the tunnels

• In 2001, planners presented a workable light-rail system that would have utilized part of the subway tunnels. “Issue 7” was voted down by more than a 2-to-1 ratio.

1825 to 1856: The Miami-Erie Canal offers cheap, reliable transportation of goods and passengers.

1850s: Railroads begin to develop, helping drive the canal out of business.

1872 to 1894: Five inclined planes are built: in Mount Auburn, Price Hill, Fairview, Clifton Heights and Mount Adams. They are dismantled one by one through the first half of the 1900s. Mount Adams is the last to cease operation in 1948.

1877: Cincinnati officially abandons the canal.

1884: The Graphic, a weekly magazine, proposes using the canal ditch for a subterranean rapid transit system.

Early 1900s to 1930s: Nine different "traction lines" operate in Cincinnati. Interurbans, as they are called, transport passengers and goods all over the Midwest.

1907: George Kessler, a Kansas City landscape architect, develops the "Kessler Plan," which calls for a wide road along the route of the canal. The road is Central Parkway, and it is planned as a "grand boulevard," 150 feet wide with a continuous central park space.

1908: Henry Ford introduces the Model T.

1910: Cincinnati's new mayor, Henry Hunt, proposes a 15-mile beltway around the city. Part of it would run underground, using the bed of the canal as the subway. Central Parkway would be built on top.

June 1913: Mayor Hunt is defeated in the 1913 election, but the Republican Party continues the rapid transit program.

1914: Henry Ford starts the first moving automobile assembly line in Michigan.

1915: City council receives five plans, or schemes, which detail options for the subway and loop. Costs average about $13 million. "Modification H" is selected at a cost of $6 million.

1917: Residents vote in favor of a $6 million bond issue to build the rapid transit system. The fare is set at five cents.

April 1917: America enters World War I.

1918: Construction costs double after the war. As a result, only the western portion of the system will be built. For $6 million, the line will start at the canal at Walnut Street, move west along the canal and north through St. Bernard, then east to Norwood and south to Oakley.

1920: Construction begins with draining the canal. By 1921, the city will have already spent $3 million on the rapid transit system.

1924: Six miles are completed, two of which are underground. Rails, electricity and furnishings are never added. Temporary walls are installed at Elm and Plum and two other places on Walnut Street. The "temporary" walls still remain.

1926: Construction stops.

1927: Engineers from the Beeler Organization find that even though Cincinnati is small, "the rugged topography and the wide spread of the industrial sections emphasize the necessity" for rapid transit. The report also questions whether or not the city will spend another $10.6 million needed to complete the system with track, walls, turnstiles, toilets, signal system, lighting and ventilation.

October, 1928: Central Parkway opens for traffic on Oct. 1. Mayor Seasongood closes City Hall, court is adjourned and mail deliveries are canceled.

1929: The stock market crashes and America enters the Great Depression. The city will not consider the subway again until 1936.

1940: The city spends $10,000 on "A Traffic Study Report" by engineers from New York and Michigan. At this point, the city is still paying $1,000 a day in interest for the subway.

1941: The plan is again put on hold as the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and America enters World War II.

1940s: The State Highway Department plans to built a six-lane highway in Cincinnati that would go through the old canal bed.

1945: World War II ends. Traffic congestion worsens.

1947: The uncompleted subway project will not be recommended for future development in the Master Plan transit report. Instead, Interstate 75, aka Mill Creek Expressway, duplicates much of the subway route.

1956: City Council approves the use of the subway for a water main, saving $300,000 in excavation costs.

1962: Interstate 75 (Mill Creek Expressway) and the Norwood Lateral are completed using portions of the original rapid-transit right-of-way.

1962: The Liberty Street station is equipped as a fallout shelter. Lights, an office with a working phone, cots, toilets and a stockpile of Civil Defense canisters are added. It is maintained through the 1980s. Protection would have been equal to a home basement.

1966: The final payment for the subway is made. Total cost is over $13 million - $13,019,982.45, to be exact.

Currently: Cincinnati's Department of Transportation and Engineering inspects and maintains the subway structure once a year; it supports Central Parkway.