CINCINNATI'S MILL CREEK AREA
Aug. 2006
PART 1
The day was gloomy as usual, but I was due to take the bikey Roads Scholaring. All sorts of neet poo goes on down in the 'Nati, and this 4-part set of photos is proof of this age-old axiom. During this outing in the city's Mill Creek valley, I slammed into a signpost on Beekman Street and struck my bare noggin, so if the photos look blurry in the last 2 parts, you'll know why. Also, this trip ruined my bike tire, as I wasn't completely successful at dodging all the broken glass piles that have been sitting along this route for at least the past 4 years.
This set starts off with a whimper. Here we're leaving downtown on 9th Street, as it passes over I-75. We're facing south at I-75, and you can see 7th Street going over the freeway. The building on the right is Channel 19's studio, and Paul Brown Stadium is visible jutting above the BGS that lists Louisville and Lexington. I think the other BGS's say "Second St/Downtown/Riverfront" and "Fifth St/Downtown."
From that same spot, we're looking north at I-75. The BGS reads "Ezzard Charles Dr/Liberty St." When I first saw a sign for Ezzard Charles Drive as a child, I thought the name Ezzard had something to do with Hazzard (as in The Dukes Of) because of the similar spelling.
One of the most unusual ramps in the area. We're on Linn Street looking down at Gest Street. (These streets meet each other twice. This is the more northern of the 2 junctions.) Neither street is a freeway, but Gest has a ramp that goes up to Linn - although Linn has no ramp or other access to Gest. The ramp is actually a left exit.
Now we're on Gest looking up the left exit ramp on the other side of Linn.
Looking north on Dalton Avenue into a tunnel that goes under the parking lot for Union Terminal. You can see part of the beautiful Union Terminal at left.
A main reason I went out this way was to peep Gest Street in preparation for the upcoming temporary closure of the 8th Street Viaduct. I wanted to make sure the little-known Gest Street Viaduct was a suitable detour. Here we're going west on Gest towards that span. Before reaching the bridge, however, Gest goes through a series of long underpasses under the rail line like this. That's actually more like a tunnel, because it's so big.
Continuing on Gest, yet another underpass looms. On the hill behind that you can see the high rise on Matson Place.
Now we're on the Gest Street Viaduct, looking back at the flyover from the previous photo. The Gest Street Viaduct isn't really even a viaduct, though it is often called that. And it's not because viaduct is such a funny word. The entire area around this low-lying bridge has a horrible stench, like a bunker blast gone horribly wrong. Although an earlier bridge had occupied this spot, the railing of this version of the bridge bore a date of 1997. Wow, a public landmark that's lasted 9 whole years without being torn down because it fostered a "poor business climate"!
On the Gest Street Viaduct, looking south at the flooded and polluted Mill Creek. It's hard to really see the creek in this pic though. The 8th Street Viaduct is right on the horizon, and under that you can see the flood barrier - the building that acts as a dam containing pumps.