History Behind The Abandoned Subway In Cincinnati

Beneath the streets of Cincinnati, Ohio, a set of visibly unused tunnels and stations for a rapid transit system could be seen. It is the abandoned subway of Ohio, called the Cincinnati Subway, infamous for its incomplete construction. The subway has been termed as “one of the city’s biggest embarrassments” and “one of the Cincinnati biggest failures”.

The construction began from 1920 and continued till 1925 with finance of $6 million which relatively got exhausted before the completion of the project. The project but, highlighted the technological advancement of that period, but had to be abandoned in mid-way even before reaching the 16 mile target, after the great depression and World War II, leaving behind with only 2.1 miles of tunnels (between Walnut street and near Western Hills) and three stations (Liberty St., Race St. and Brighton’s Corner) completely built underneath the Central Parkway.

Many of the items had really collapsed long back, and there was way made for I-75 and the Norwood Lateral in the 1950’s and 1970’s respectively. Earlier, the engineers planned out the extension from the Walnut St. south to downtown with one station at Fountain Square but it never got materialized. And moreover, several moving lines are untraceable as only three of the dozen planned stations above the ground were built.

The portions of I-75 and the Norwood Lateral somehow follow the path of the line, but a long stretch near the Dana Avenue of I-71 was considerably built where you can check out for the subway’s loop that was planned on the eastern half side of the subway.

The tunnel can still be used by public, as the government has looked into the relative maintenance of the subway in the past recent years. The “Metro Moves” sales tax in 2002 could have been a great funding for the maintenance of the tunnel, but it was never favored by the common public.

Via Cincinnati Transit.