CINCINNATI roadmeet
May 30 2020
PART 3
This is button copy, people. This is as we leave Norwood at the end of OH 562.
South on the bypassed stretch of Red Bank Road where the bridge over the rail line had been removed not long before. In the background, you can see the other approach of the bridge. The graffiti on the box at right included a big, scary face.
Looking north on Red Bank from the old bridge site.
South on Red Bank Expressway, which is not an expressway by any means. This is where the so-called expressway portion ends. The billboard says something about Eclipse. That's gum. But the billboard isn't for gum.
South on Red Bank Road. The billboard shows Big Boy wearing sunglasses and appearing to be serving a plate with a person on it. But if it was a California Big Boy in 2020, the restaurant would be closed! Unless, that is, you had a governor who kept it open just so he and his cronies could go there and laugh loudly and disturb other customers.
A somewhat unusual ramp from Red Bank to US 50.
An ancient white yield sign at the parking lot at Frisch's in Fairfax. US 50 is in the background. I don't know if Frisch's was open, but if it was, I guess we could've gotten some vittles there. I hadn't planned on it, but maybe the other 5 Roads Scholars would have forced me to get food there by threatening to surround me and sing right in my face, "There's no wa! Badeedle-badeed! Gotta be Frisch's Big Boy! 'Cause it ain't such a value!"
The US 50 sign also wasn't born yesterday, though it doesn't appear quite as old. This is where Columbia Parkway becomes Wooster Pike, and this transition was built around 1960.
Northwest on Meadowlark Lane. The THROUGH TRUCKS PROHIBITED sign appeared very old.
A broader view of Meadowlark at US 50.
US 50 goes southwest here as Columbia Parkway. Button copy lurks on that sign. This is the Columbia Parkway extension built around 1960, expanding the original 1938 parkway.
More button copy at the Red Bank exit.
There's a lot to process here, but this is near the end of the circa 1960 stretch.
Here we begin the 1938 stretch, which overlays the older Columbia Avenue. At upper right, you see a downright elderly US 50 sign.
US 50 rounds an infamous curve. I actually don't remember ever being on this stretch very much. I know I must have been on it when I was 15, because I remember going through here once and hearing "Give Me The Keys" by Huey Lewis & the News on the car radio.
As US 50 pibs northwest, it approaches Tusculum Avenue, where US 50 begins a brief stretch as a regular city street instead of the parkway format.
We lose US 50 and plop onto this viaduct that goes over I-471, Eggleston Avenue, and other goodies.
The viaduct feeds into 5th Street.
Newport, Ky.! This is going west on the KY 8 bridge to Covington. A lane of traffic had been temporarily closed because emergency repairs to a corroded beam had to be made. It was around that time that the design work for a replacement bridge began. Most articles about it are from the viewpoint of large businesses, but it would presumably have some benefit to people too.
Now we're in Covington and this is north on Philadelphia Street at 4th (KY 8 west). The main thing of interest is the Interstate shield that is completely faded.