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Cincinnati, Ohio
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Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border. The population within city limits was 332,458 in 2007. while Greater Cincinnati's population exceeds 2.1 million. Residents of Cincinnati are called Cincinnatians.
Cincinnati is considered to have been the first major American boomtown rapidly expanding in the heart of the country in the early nineteenth century to rival the larger coastal cities in size and wealth.
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Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border. The population within city limits was 332,458 in 2007. while Greater Cincinnati's population exceeds 2.1 million. Residents of Cincinnati are called Cincinnatians.
Cincinnati is considered to have been the first major American boomtown rapidly expanding in the heart of the country in the early nineteenth century to rival the larger coastal cities in size and wealth. As the first major inland city in the country, it is sometimes thought of as the first purely American city, lacking the heavy European influence that was present on the east coast. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, Cincinnati's growth had slowed considerably, and the city was surpassed in population by many other inland cities.
Cincinnati is home to major sports teams including the Cincinnati Reds and the Cincinnati Bengals, as well as events like the Cincinnati Masters and the Thanksgiving day race. The University of Cincinnati traces its foundation to the Medical College of Ohio, which was founded in 1819.
Cincinnati is also known for having one of the larger collections of nineteenth-century German architecture in the U.S., primarily concentrated just north of Downtown, one of the largest historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
Cincinnati was founded in 1788 by John Cleves Symmes and Colonel Robert Patterson. Surveyor John Filson (also the author of The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boone) named it "Losantiville" from four terms, each of a different language, meaning "the city opposite the mouth of the Licking River." Ville is French for "city," anti is Greek for "opposite", os is Latin for "mouth", and "L" was all that was included of "Licking River".
In 1790, Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory, changed the name of the settlement to "Cincinnati" in honor of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which he was a member. The society honored General George Washington, who was considered a latter day Cincinnatus, the Roman who was called to serve Rome as dictator, an office which he immediately resigned after completing his task of defeating the Aequians. To this day, Cincinnati in particular, and Ohio in general, is home to a statistically significant number of descendants of Revolutionary War soldiers who were granted lands in the state.
In 1802, Cincinnati was chartered as a village. David Ziegler (1748-1811), a Revolutionary War veteran from Heidelberg, Germany, became the first mayor. Cincinnati was incorporated as a city in 1819. The introduction of steam navigation on the Ohio River in 1811 and the completion of the Miami and Erie Canal helped the city grow to 115,000 citizens by 1850.
Construction on the Miami and Erie Canal began on July 21, 1825, when it was called the Miami Canal, a reference to the Little Miami River, which was its origin, and water was diverted into the canal bed in 1827. The canal began by connecting Cincinnati to nearby Middletown in 1827 and, by 1840, the canal had reached Toledo, changing the Miami Canal to the Miami and Erie Canal and signifying the connection between the Little Miami River and Lake Erie.
During this period of rapid expansion, citizens of Cincinnati began referring to the city as the "Queen" city. The phrase was cemented in the poem "Catawba Wine" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote that the city was "the Queen of the West", giving the city its nickname.
Railroads were the next major form of transportation to come to Cincinnati. In 1836, the Little Miami Railroad was chartered. Construction began soon after, to connect Cincinnati with the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad, and thus the ports of the Sandusky Bay on Lake Erie.
On April 1, 1853, Cincinnati's Fire Department became a paid department, the first full-time paid fire department in the United States. It was the first in the world to use steam fire engines.
Six years later, in 1859, Cincinnati laid out six streetcar lines, making it easier for people to get around the city. By 1872, Cincinnatians could travel on the streetcar line within the city and then be transported by rail car to the hill communities. The Cincinnati Inclined Plane Company began transporting people to the top of Mount Auburn in that year.
The Cincinnati Red Stockings, whose name and heritage inspired today's Cincinnati Reds, began their career in the 1800s as well. In 1868, meetings were held at the law offices of Tilden, Sherman, and Moulton to make Cincinnati’s baseball team a professional one; it became the first regular professional team in the country, being organized formally in 1869.
During the American Civil War, Cincinnati played a key role as a major source of supplies and troops for the Union Army. It also served as the headquarters for much of the war for the Department of the Ohio, which was charged with the defense of the region, as well as directing the army's offensives into Kentucky and Tennessee. Due to Cincinnati's proximity to and commerce with slave states across the Ohio River, there was significant "Southern sympathy" in the Cincinnati area. This is evidenced by the history of the Copperhead movement in Ohio. In July of 1863, Cincinnati was placed under martial law due to the imminent danger posed by the Confederate Morgan's Raiders. They came close to Cincinnati but never actually attacked the city proper, although several outlying villages such as Cheviot and Montgomery were attacked.
In 1879, Procter & Gamble, one of Cincinnati's major soap manufacturers, began marketing Ivory Soap. It was marketed as light enough to float. After a fire at the first factory, Procter & Gamble moved to a new factory on the Mill Creek and began soap production again. The area became known as Ivorydale.
Cincinnati weathered the Great Depression better than most American cities of its size, largely because of a resurgence of inexpensive river trade. The rejuvenation of downtown began in the 1920s and continued into the next decade with the construction of Union Terminal, the post office, and a large Bell Telephone building.
The flood of 1937 was one of the worst in the nation's history, resulting in the building of protective flood walls. After World War II, Cincinnati unveiled a master plan for urban renewal that resulted in modernization of the inner city. Like other older industrial cities, Cincinnati suffered from economic restructuring and loss of jobs following deindustrialization in the mid-century.
In the 1970s, the city completed Riverfront Stadium and Riverfront Coliseum, as the Cincinnati Reds baseball team emerged as one of the dominant teams of the decade. In 1989, the 200th anniversary of the city's founding, much attention was focused on the city's Year 2000 plan, which involved further revitalization.
The completion of several major new development projects enhance the city as it enters the early years of the new millennium. Cincinnati's beloved Bengals and Reds teams both have new, state-of-the-art homes: Paul Brown Stadium, opened in 2000; and the Great American Ball Park, opened in 2003, respectively. Two new museums have opened: the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in 2003, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in 2004.
The City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County are currently planning the Banks--a 24-hour urban neighborhood of restaurants, clubs, offices, and homes with sweeping skyline views, along the city's riverfront. Cincinnati has received such accolades as "Most Liveable City" (1993), Partners for Livable Communities, April 2004; number five U.S. arts destination, American Style Magazine, Summer 2004; was the highest rated city in Ohio for "Best Cities For Young Professionals" and 18th overall, Forbes Magazine, June 2007; and inclusion in the top ten "Cities that Rock," Esquire Magazine, April 2004.
Geography
Cincinnati is located at (39.136160, -84.503088), with a core metro area spanning parts of Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 79.6 square miles (206.1 km˛), of which, 78.0 square miles (201.9 km˛) of it is land and 1.6 square miles (4.1 km˛) of it (2.01%) is water. The city spreads over a number of hills, bluffs, and low ridges overlooking the Ohio River in the Bluegrass region of the country. Although sometimes referred to as part of the Midwest, Cincinnati is geographically located within the periphery of the Upland South.
Climate
Cincinnati is located within the northern limit of the humid subtropical climate and the southern limit of the humid continental climate zone, with average temperatures by U.S. standards. Summers are hot and humid with slightly cooler evenings. July is the warmest month, with an average high of 87°F (31°C) and an average low of 68°F (20°C). Winters are generally cool to cold, with occasional snowfall. January is the coldest month, with an average high of 38°F (3°C) and an average low of 21°F (-6°C). Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed each month, averaging 41 inches of rainfall and 23 inches of snowfall annually. The highest recorded temperature was 109 °F (43 °C) on July 21, 1934, and the lowest recorded temperature was -25°F (-32 °C) on January 18, 1977.
Cityscape
Downtown Cincinnati is focused around Fountain Square, a popular public square and gathering place for many events.
Cincinnati is home to numerous structures that are noteworthy due to their architectural characteristics or historic associations including the Carew Tower, the Scripps Center, the Ingalls Building, Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, and the Isaac M. Wise Temple.
The city is undergoing significant changes due to an influx of new development and private investment as well as the construction of the long stalled Banks project. Currently, there has been nearly $3.5 billion invested in urban core of Cincinnati (including Northern Kentucky), and it is anticipated that even more investment will take place.
Construction has begun on a new building that will dominate the Cincinnati skyline. Queen City Square is scheduled to be open in 2011. The building will be the tallest in Cincinnati and the third tallest in Ohio, reaching a height of 660 feet.
Government
The city is governed by a nine-member city council, whose members are elected at large. Prior to 1924, city council was elected through a system of wards. The ward system lent itself to corruption and Cincinnati was run by the Republican political machine of "Boss" Cox from the 1880s through the 1920s with a few brief interludes. A reform movement arose in 1923, led by another Republican, Murray Seasongood. Seasongood eventually founded the Charter Committee, which used ballot initiatives in 1924 to eliminate the ward system and replace it with the current at-large system and also to introduce a city manager form of government. From 1924 to 1957, the council was selected by proportional representation. Beginning in 1957, all candidates ran in a single race and the top nine vote-getters were elected (the "9-X system"). The mayor was selected by the council. In 1977 Jerry Springer, later a controversial television talk show host, was chosen to serve one year as mayor. Starting in 1987, the top vote-getter in the city council election automatically became mayor. Starting in 1999, the mayor was chosen in a separate election and the city manager received a lesser role in government; these reforms were referred to as the "strong mayor" reforms. Cincinnati politics include the participation of the Charter Party, the party with the third-longest history of winning in local elections.
Race relations
Because of its location on the Ohio River, before the Civil War, Cincinnati was a border town between the states that allowed slavery, such as Kentucky, and those that did not, such as Ohio. Residents of Cincinnati and surrounding areas played a major role in abolitionism, but there were also opponents to this movement.
Social tensions, the press of new immigrants and competition over jobs sometimes erupted into violence. In 1829 a riot broke out as whites attacked blacks in the city. Some 1,200 blacks left the city as a result of rioting and resettled in Canada. The riot was a national topic of discussion in black communities. Representatives at the first Negro Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1830 discussed how to help the refugees.
As the anti-slavery movement grew, other riots occurred in 1836 and 1841. In 1836 whites attacked a press run by James Birney, who published the anti-slavery weekly The Philanthropist. The mob grew to 700 and also attacked black neighborhoods.
Tensions increased after passage in 1850 of the Fugitive Slave Act. Abolitionists maintained stations of the Underground Railroad in the area, as slaves frequently escaped across the river. Harriet Beecher Stowe lived here for a while and used the area as the setting for her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. She had met escaped slaves and heard their stories. Levi Coffin made the Cincinnati area the center of his anti-slavery efforts in 1847. Today, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center commemorates the era at its center located at 50 East Freedom Way.
The 20th and 21st centuries had different issues in race relations, aggravated by late 20th century economic problems. In 2001 a series of racially charged riots occurred after the shooting death of a black male, Timothy Thomas, by police during a foot pursuit.
Crime
Before the riot of 2001, Cincinnati's overall crime rate was dropping dramatically and had reached its lowest point since 1992. After the riot violent crime increased, and in 2005 Cincinnati was ranked as the 20th most dangerous city in America. The police force "work slowdown" correlates with this increase. An article published in the Cincinnati Enquirer on May 30, 2007 affirmed that incidents of violent crime, including homicides, were 15.3 percent lower than they had been in the first four months of 2006. Children's Hospital saw a 78 percent decrease in gunshot wounds, and University Hospital had a 17 percent drop.
In May and June 2006, together with the Hamilton County Sheriff, the Cincinnati Police Department created a task force to crack down on crime. This consisted of an extra twenty deputies assigned to Over-the-Rhine and helped reduce the crime rate of downtown Cincinnati by 29% . This marks a dramatic decrease in crime but has not reduced the crime levels to pre-riot levels.
In the general elections on November 7, 2006, Hamilton County voters rejected a quarter-cent sales tax increase which would have been used to build a new jail system.
The city has attempted to reduce gun violence in Cincinnati by using the Out of the Crossfire program at University Hospital, which is a rehabilitation program for patients with gunshot wounds. The program attempts to prevent them from falling back into the cycle of violence which many gunshot victims return to after leaving the hospital. Mayor Mark Mallory is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." 2007 saw 68 homicides, nearly a 25% drop from 2006 in which there were 89. However, this is still not lower than 2000 count of 15 homicides.
As of May 2008, violent crime is down by almost 12% compared to the crime rate at that point last year. At year end 2008, 75 homicides were recorded, an increase from 68 the previous year.
Demographics
According to the 2007 American Community Survey, the city's population was 52.0% White (49.3% non-Hispanic-White alone), 46.5% Black or African American, 0.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.0% Asian, 1.0% from some other race and 2.4% from two or more races. 1.7% of the total population were Hispanic or Latino (of any race).
As of the census of 2000, there were 331,285 people, 148,095 households, and 72,566 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,879.8.0 people per square mile (1,498.0/km˛) with a housing density of 2,129.2/sq mi (822.1/km˛). The racial makeup of the city was 52.97% White, 42.92% Black or African American, 0.21% Native American, 1.55% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.63% from other races, and 1.68% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.28% of the population. The top 5 largest ancestries include German (19.8%), Irish (10.4%), English (5.4%), American (4.8%), Italian (3.3%).
There were 148,095 households out of which 25.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 26.6% were married couples living together, 18.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 51.0% were non-families. 42.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.15 and the average family size was 3.02.
The age distribution was 24.5% under the age of 18, 12.9% from 18 to 24, 31.6% from 25 to 44, 18.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 89.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $29,493, and the median income for a family was $37,543. Males had a median income of $33,063 versus $26,946 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,962. About 18.2% of families and 21.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.0% of those under age 18 and 14.8% of those age 65 or over.
For several decades the Census Bureau had been reporting a steady decline in the city's population. But according to the Census Bureau's 2006 estimates, the population was 332,252, representing an increase from 331,310 in 2005. Despite the fact that this change was due to an official challenge by the city however, Mayor Mark Mallory has repeatedly argued that the city's population is actually at 378,259 after a drill-drown study was performed by an independent, non-profit group based in Washington, D.C.
The Cincinnati-Middletown-Wilmington Combined Statistical Area has a population of 2,113,011 people, making it the second largest metropolitan area in Ohio and the 24th largest in the country. It includes the Ohio counties of Hamilton, Butler, Warren, Clermont, and Brown, as well as the Kentucky counties of Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, and Pendleton, and the Indiana counties of Dearborn, Franklin, and Ohio.
Economy
Cincinnati is home to major corporations such as Procter & Gamble, The Kroger Company, Sunny Delight Beverages Co., GE Aviation (suburb of Evendale), Macy's, Inc. (owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's), Convergys, Chiquita Brands International, Great American Insurance Company, Western & Southern Financial Group, The E. W. Scripps Company, the United States Playing Card Company (enclave of Norwood), and Fifth Third Bank. Kao Corporation's United States headquarters are in Cincinnati as well. Altogether, ten Fortune 500 companies and eighteen Fortune 1000 companies are headquartered in the Cincinnati area. Statistically, Greater Cincinnati ranks sixth in the U.S. with 4.98 Fortune 500 companies per million residents and fourth in the U.S. with 8.96 Fortune 1000 companies per million residents. Cincinnati has three Fortune Global 500 companies; the most Global 500 companies in the state of Ohio and more than any other city in the Midwest except for Milwaukee, in which they tie.
Education
The Cincinnati Public School district includes 16 high schools, each accepting students on a city-wide basis. The district includes many public Montessori schools, one of which, Clark Montessori, was the first public Montessori high school established in the United States.
The city and region is also home to a variety of other schools, both public and private. In August 2007, Cincinnati Magazine published an article rating 36 private high schools in greater Cincinnati. According to the 2000 census, the Cincinnati area has some of the highest private school attendance rates in the United States, with Hamilton County ranking second only to St. Louis County, Missouri among the country's 100 largest counties.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati accounts for several high schools in metro Cincinnati; ten of which are single-sex: four all-male, and six all-female. Cincinnati is also home to the all-girl RITSS (Regional Institute for Torah and Secular Studies) high school, a small Orthodox Jewish institution.
Cincinnati is home to the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University, among other colleges and universities. Xavier University is well known for its athletics programs, and it has a well-known psychology department. It was at one time affiliated with The Athenaeum of Ohio, the seminary of the Cincinnati Archdiocese. The University of Cincinnati Medical Center is very highly regarded. Also in the Greater Cincinnati area are Miami University (one of the original "Public Ivies"), and Northern Kentucky University, among others.
Culture
Cincinnati is home to numerous festivals and events throughout the year, including:
- The Cincinnati Flower Show, organized by the Cincinnati Horticultural Society in late April. This floral event, endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society, is staged at Lake Como at Coney Island and claims to be the biggest outdoor flower show in the United States.
- Oktoberfest, celebrating Cincinnati's German heritage, is the largest Octoberfest in the US and the second largest in the world.
- Thanksgiving Day Race, the sixth-oldest race in the country.
- The Taste of Cincinnati and the Jazz Festival, held during the summer months.
- The Tall Stacks Festival, held every three or four years to celebrate Cincinnati's riverboat history.
- The Festival of Lights, hosted by the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden during the year-end holiday season.
- The Cincinnati Bell/WEBN Riverfest fireworks display on Labor Day weekend, attracting annual crowds of over 400,000.
The city plays host to numerous musical and theater operations, operates a park system currently ranked 4th in the country boasting that any city resident is within a mile of a park, and has a diverse dining culture. Cincinnati's Fountain Square serves as one of the cultural cornerstones of the region.
Cincinnati is identified with several unique foods. "Cincinnati chili" is commonly served by several independent chains, including Skyline Chili, Gold Star Chili, Empress Chili, Camp Washington Chili, and Dixie Chili and Deli. Goetta is a meat product popular in Cincinnati, usually eaten as a breakfast food. Cincinnati also has many gourmet restaurants. Until 2005, when the restaurant closed, The Maisonette carried the distinction of being Mobil Travel Guide's longest running five-star restaurant in the country. Jean-Robert de Cavel has opened four new restaurants in the area since 2001, including Jean-Robert's at Pigall's. Cincinnati's German heritage is evidenced by the many restaurants that specialize in schnitzels and Bavarian cooking. Another element of German culture remains audible in the local vernacular; some residents use the word please when asking a speaker to repeat a statement. This usage is taken from the German word for please, bitte, which is used in this sense.
Findlay Market is Ohio's oldest continuously-operated public market and one of Cincinnati's most famous institutions. The market is the last remaining market among the many that once served Cincinnati.
In August, 2008 Forbes magazine ranked Cincinnati as tenth in a list of "America's Hard-Drinking Cities".
Media and music
Cincinnati is served by The Cincinnati Enquirer, a daily newspaper. The city is home to several alternative, weekly, and monthly publications, as well as twelve television stations and many radio stations.
Free magazine publications include CinWeekly, CityBeat, and DERF Magazine.com. CinWeekly is a general interest weekly publication with a broad focus on light entertainment such as music, nightlife, dining, fashion, and art. CityBeat is also a weekly magazine with an entertainment focus but also a prominent editorial slant. DERF Magazine is monthly humor-based publication (similar in style to The Onion) featuring satirical and fake news in addition to local event listings and extensive nightlife photo galleries.
Movies that were filmed in part in Cincinnati include The Asphalt Jungle (open shot from the Public Landing, takes place in Cincinnati but only Boone County, KY is mentioned), Rain Man, Airborne, Grimm Reality, Little Man Tate, City of Hope (director: John Sayles), Milk Money, Batman Forever, Traffic, The Pride of Jesse Hallam, In Too Deep, Public Eye, The Last Late Night, and The Mighty. In addition, Wild Hogs is set, though not filmed, in Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati skyline was prominently featured in the opening and closing sequences of the daytime drama The Edge of Night from its start in 1956 until 1980, when it was superseded by the Los Angeles skyline; the cityscape was the stand-in for the show's setting, Monticello. Procter & Gamble, the show's producer, is based in Cincinnati. The sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati featured the city's skyline in its credits, as well as obviously being set, though not shot in, Cincinnati. The city's skyline has also appeared in an April Fool's episode of The Drew Carey Show, which was set in Carey's hometown of Cleveland.
Cincinnati gave rise to many popular bands and musicians, including The Isley Brothers, James Brown, Mood, Calloway, The Afghan Whigs, Over the Rhine (which traces its roots to Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine district), Bootsy Collins, Blessid Union of Souls, 98 Degrees, The Greenhornes, The National, Enduser and Heartless Bastards. In addition, many other bands and musicians call the Greater Cincinnati region their home, including Adrian Belew, Peter Frampton and alternative Hip Hop DJ, DJ Hi-Tek, who is one half of Reflection Eternal.
3 Doors Down's music video "It's Not My Time" was filmed in Cincinnati showing parts of the skyline as well as Fountain Square.
Cincinnati is the broadcasting home of WEBN: The Future of Rock& Roll, woxy.com online and available on Cincinnati Public Radio Inc. HD Radio station 91.7-2.
The Cincinnati May Festival Chorus is a prestigious amateur choir that has been in existence since 1880. Music Director James Conlon and Chorus Director Robert Porco lead the Chorus through an extensive repertoire of classical music. The May Festival Chorus is the mainstay of the oldest continuous choral festival in the Western Hemisphere. Cincinnati's Music Hall was built specifically to house the May Festival.
Cincinnati is home to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Boychoir and Cincinnati Ballet. The Greater Cincinnati area is also home to several regional orchestras and youth orchestras, including the Starling Chamber Orchestra.
Sports
Cincinnati has seven major sports venues, two major league teams, six minor league teams, and five college institutions with their own sports teams. It is home to baseball's Reds, who were named for America's first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings; the Bengals of the National Football League; and the historic international men's and women's tennis tournament, The A.T.P. Masters Series Cincinnati Masters. It is also home to three professional soccer teams, two outdoor teams, the Cincinnati Kings (men's) and Cincinnati LadyHawks (women's), and one indoor team, the Cincinnati Excite (men's).
Fans often refer to the city and its teams as "Cincy" for short. Even the Reds' official website uses that name frequently.
Transportation
Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) is the major airport serving the metropolitan area and is located across the river in Kentucky. The airport is the second largest hub for Delta and the largest for its subsidiary, Comair. The city has four other airports; Lunken Airport, a municipal airfield used for smaller business jets and private planes; the Butler County Regional Airport, located between Fairfield and Hamilton, which ranks just behind Lunken in business jets and has the largest private aircraft capacity of the Cincinnati area; Cincinnati West Airport, a smaller airport located in Harrison, Ohio; and the Blue Ash Airport, in Blue Ash.
is more commonly called the "Big Mac" bridge because of its resemblance to McDonald's iconic arches.]]
Cincinnati is served by the Metro city passenger bus system, operated by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA). The Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) serves Northern Kentucky and operates bus links in Cincinnati at Metro's main Government Square hub. There is also rail service by Amtrak with ticket offices and boarding stations at Cincinnati Union Terminal. Of the several railroad freight services serving the city, the largest is provided by CSX Transportation which operates a railroad yard west of Interstate 75.
The city has a river ferry and many bridges. The Anderson Ferry has been in continuous operation since 1817.
Cincinnati’s major bridges include:
Cincinnati is served by three major interstate highways. Interstate 75 is a north-south route through the Mill Creek valley. Interstate 71 runs northeast towards Mount Adams and Walnut Hills. Interstate 74 begins at Interstate 75 west of downtown and connects to Indiana.
The city has an outer-belt, Interstate 275, and a spur to Kentucky, Interstate 471. It is also served by numerous U.S. highways: US 22, US 25, US 27, US 42, US 50, US 52, and US 127.
Cincinnati has an incomplete subway system. Construction stopped in 1924 when unexpected post-World War I inflation had doubled the cost of construction. As a result, the funds that were originally set aside were not enough to complete the subway system. There have been several attempts by SORTA to utilize the subways for a modern light-rail system within Hamilton County. All of these initiatives have thus far failed when placed on the ballot, with the most recent (a $2.7 billion plan) failing 2 to 1 in 2002. Today the subway is used as a conduit for fiber optic and water lines.
There have been numerous attempts over the past decade to build commuter rail from Milford (in nearby Clermont County) to the Downtown Transit Center in Cincinnati. The most recent of these began gaining support in early July 2007. The $411 million plan currently calls for using and upgrading existing rail lines and new diesel cars called DMUs (diesel multiple units).
Cincinnati is also currently planning a streetcar line to connect Downtown, Over-the-Rhine and the area around the University of Cincinnati. An initial study conducted by Omaha-based HDR Engineers was completed on May 31, 2007 and estimated the cost to be around 100 million dollars. The first line connecting Over-the-Rhine to the Banks is expected to be ready by 2009 and is expected to spur the establishment of 1,200 to 3,400 new households resulting in $1.4 billion in redeveloped property, $34 million in new tax income for the city per year, and $17 million in new retail spending.
, the port of Cincinnati is ranked 5th by trip ton-miles for an inland port.
Sister cities
Cincinnati has seven sister cities:
In addition, Harare (Zimbabwe) was a former sister city, but this was suspended in protest of irregularities in the 2008 Zimbabwean presidential election.
See also
External links
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