This 1927 Plan to Finish the Cincinnati Subway Shows What Might Have Been (Hamilton: homes, neighborhoods)

[mike1003]

https://www.citybeat.com/news/news-f...ight-have-been

It's one of Cincinnati's most famous — or infamous — notes of trivia. The Queen City has a few miles of unfinished subway tunnels underneath its major thoroughfare and former canal, Central Parkway.

The First World War, the changing winds of politics and other factors conspired to mothball the enormous project in 1928, leaving generations to look at the doors to the subway tunnels sitting sealed up along side I-75 and wonder what could have been.

More Cincinnati history

They should have thought about this before they built the folley

[Cincinnati Kid]

I don't know if I have ever heard as to where the planned subway was supposed to go. In the late 1920's so much of the population was still in the limits of the city. I think the depression put a stop to the plans to build it and by the 1930's, the automobile was becoming a major method of travel rather than using public transportation.

[mike1003]

Originally Posted by Cincinnati Kid

I don't know if I have ever heard as to where the planned subway was supposed to go. In the late 1920's so much of the population was still in the limits of the city. I think the depression put a stop to the plans to build it and by the 1930's, the automobile was becoming a major method of travel rather than using public transportation.

Same here, way before my time

[TheProf]

I didn't realize there were less than 500K inside Hamilton County at the time the subway was being built in the 1920s. I thought Cincy was bigger at that time. This makes Cincinnati's subway then bid all the more ambitious even though, of course, the city's hilly topography and dense pockets, like downtown, OTR and North Side, would likely have lead to the subway's success. I'm still hoping someday trains will one day run through those tunnels. At least the City has kept them, and much of the ROW adjacent to them, intact.

I'm also surprised that, by 1917, 16 of the City's 55 street-transit routes were buses... I didn't realize urban buses were that strong at that time given the still-newness of the internal combustion engine. I'm guessing the numerous hills may have lead to this as well. I believe Cincy also operated 1 or more inclines during this time, no?

[Coseau]

Originally Posted by TheProf

I didn't realize there were less than 500K inside Hamilton County at the time the subway was being built in the 1920s. I thought Cincy was bigger at that time. This makes Cincinnati's subway then bid all the more ambitious even though, of course, the city's hilly topography and dense pockets, like downtown, OTR and North Side, would likely have lead to the subway's success. I'm still hoping someday trains will one day run through those tunnels. At least the City has kept them, and much of the ROW adjacent to them, intact.

I'm also surprised that, by 1917, 16 of the City's 55 street-transit routes were buses... I didn't realize urban buses were that strong at that time given the still-newness of the internal combustion engine. I'm guessing the numerous hills may have lead to this as well. I believe Cincy also operated 1 or more inclines during this time, no?

At the time there was 200,000 people living in the basin. An 1 and a 1/2 mile time 3 mile area composed of the CBD, OTR and the West End. If you include the surrounding neighborhoods In Covington KY, Newport KY, Mt Adams, Mt Auburn, Walnut Hills, Clifton Heights, Corryville, Camp Washington, East Walnut Hills, etc there was close to 400,000 people living withing a 3 mile radius of the Central Trust Tower in the CBD. The only solution to relieving the traffic congestion at that time was an underground rapid transit system at the time.

Also the city leaders observed Cincy's population growth rate was not keeping up with the great cities of America at the time. Building a 1st rate subway system was key in their eyes to Cincy being in the top echelon of cities in America. Without one the city leaders envisioned Cincy would keep slipping behind other cities risking slipping into irrelevance in the discussion of which are the powerful cities of America.

[TheProf]

The actual 1927 Beeler (subway commission/contractor) Report, attached to the article, more clarified to me why the subway tragically was not built. For on thing, the purpose for which it was built -- to speed suburban interurban trolley-trains into downtown Cincy all but disappeared: there was only 1 left in 1926 when construction ceased -- the line through North College Hill, while several existed during World War I when the line was conceived. The Beeler folks recommended this interurban line connect with the subway at Northside and continue over subway tracks to Fountain Sq, but they were non-committal on this point... this recommendation left open issues of the interurban fitting up its system with trains compatible to the subway (high platforms, 3rd rail power pickup, etc). Given the shaky financial status of interurbans nationally at this time, such would have been a huge, perhaps insurmountable, ask... This left an ambiguity in the mind of planners as to what its real purpose was to be. Beeler decided it would be best to complete the 9-mile core portion of the line to Oakley rather than complete the entire projected 16-mile loop.

Beeler also decided the line would best be utilized as connecting the emerging industrial areas along the perimeter suburbs such as St. Bernard and Norton to the extremely dense, compact 'basin' -- essentially OTR and downtown. NOTE: it was news to me that Cincinnati could not at the time -- maybe ever -- develop industrial areas because the city's typography prevented large areas of level land except on the City perimeter.

Another killer of the project is the failure to construct the last .4 miles of subway from Central Parkway/Walnut down Walnut St. to Fountain Sq. The system would never have been productive or worthwhile had it remained terminated at the distant edge of downtown.

Bottom line per Beeler: Cincinnati expended $6.5M (in 1920s dollars) to build the unfinished subway, but needed $10M more to actually finish it (including extending it .4 miles as a subway down narrow Walnut St. to Fountain Sq., where no convenient dried-up canal down a wide street-scape existed). But with mixed and conflicting ideas as to the subway's benefits and purpose, coupled with populist, grandstanding politicians then and since then, locals' decision has been to cut their losses and leave this great project toward the city's potential perpetually unfinished ... and that's a tragedy for Cincinnati.

[Ohiogirl81]

Fascinating! Thanks for the information.

[TheProf]

... the Beeler Report also recommended eliminating/ignoring all the completed subway stations between Central Parkway/Walnut Street near downtown all the way out to Ludlow/Northside. That's a radical departure of what was planned and what had been built just 1-year prior to the report and would all but exclude quick-trip, intra-city passenger movement. Thus in some ways, the Beeler Report seemed to muddy the waters more than clearing them.

[Coseau]

With all the money the US is going to spend on infrastructure in the next year or so this will be a once in a century opportunity for Cincy to build a subway and to return Queensgate to the West End as a densely built up urban area it once was. That is if Cincy wants to experience double digit population and economic growth similar to what it experienced in the early 20th century.

[austiNati]

Originally Posted by Coseau

With all the money the US is going to spend on infrastructure in the next year or so this will be a once in a century opportunity for Cincy to build a subway and to return Queensgate to the West End as a densely built up urban area it once was. That is if Cincy wants to experience double digit population and economic growth similar to what it experienced in the early 20th century.

This. This. THIS


A series of tunnels for our expressways and existing rail can make this a possibility. The streetcar can continue north as a subway and intersect with a spur tunnel from the original subway for a massive transit station under UC. With I-75 buried, all of that land in Queensgate and the West End is reclaimed.



Divert I-75 into a tunnel under the Ohio River and reunite it with I-71 across the river in the area that I like to call "fast food paradise" in Covington. You won't have to use imminent domain to vacate anyone out of their homes (that would lead to population loss), and the fast food and gas stations can relocate east of the Clay Wade Baily bridge. If Covington demolishes the old IRS building, they can extend their downtown into that vacant land, and the land reclaimed by the I-75 clover ramp exiting the tunnel won't be missed. We need to build for the next 100 years, and it ain't gonna be cheap, but damnit we deserve it as Americans.



Make me believe again America, please, please, PLEASE.