Description: Reverse reads: "Mt. Adams Incline, in Cincinnati, Ohio."
View of the Ohio River and the City of Cincinnati, facing southeast, from the top of the Mount Adams Incline.
Mount Adams Incline, extending from Lock St. to Rookwood Pl. and Celestial St., was the more important of the two local inclines. The inclines comprised two stilted, cable-drawn platforms that raised wagons and pedestrians, and later the Zoo-Eden Streetcars and automobiles 268 feet from Lock Street to the hilltop on an inclined track 945 feet long. The understructure, over house tops and streets, is made of stout lumber and had a track gauge of 4 feet 8.5 inches. The funicular railway, completed in 1875, was closed in 1948, and I-471 now runs through the location at the base of the hill.
Near the center of the photograph, a water tower with the word "Seeds" can be seen, next to which can be seen on the building, the words "Acme Seeds." Another picture shows a sign near this building for The J. Chas. McCullough Seed Company but it is unclear if these two are related. More information needed.
The Ohio River is the largest tributary of the Mississippi River and is about 981 miles long. It begins at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in Point State Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It forms the border between Ohio and West Virginia, as well as Ohio and Kentucky, Indiana and Kentucky and Illinois and Kentucky. It joins the Mississippi near Cairo, Illinois.
The bridge on the left, is the L&N Bridge or Louisville & Nashville RR Bridge, opened in 1872 as the Newport & Cincinnati Bridge and was the first railroad bridge to cross the Ohio River in Cincinnati. The bridge was modified in 1897 to include street car and horse and cart traffic. In 1904, the cart path was paved for automobiles and the bridge renamed as the L&N Bridge after its new owners. By the late 1940's street car service was removed and in 1987 railroad traffic ceased. By the 1990's the bridge was lightly used by automobile traffic, and was officially renamed the CSX Bridge after new owners. On April 17, 2001 it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, closed to automobiles in 2002, and reopened in 2003 after a $4 million renovation as a pedestrian only bridge.
The bridge on the right, called the Central Bridge or Cincinnati & Newport Bridge, was finished in 1890 and was the first "standard" cantilever truss bridge to be built. Located next to the L&N Bridge seen in the background, the Central Bridge had a similar type and length of approach spans to that of the L&N bridge, with the piers built from identical stone. Demolished in 1992, the bridge was replaced by the Taylor-Southgate Bridge in 1995.
View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B03F08_030_1
Subjects: Cincinnati (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Funicular railroads; Inclined planes
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)