DAYTON/BELLEVUE/NEWPORT/WILDER, KY
Jan. 28 2008
PART 1
Like when Q-102 acted like they wrote "Grease Megamix" and played mixer sounds whenever they aired it, I'm gonna act like I put Dayton, Bellevue, Newport, and Wilder together in one giant lump supercity. But seriously, the Peace Bike and I made pretty good use of these 4 cities and found some not-half-bad Roads Scholarin' sites that are documented in this 2-part set of 40 photos.
Setting the stage for today's outing, this is looking over Fairfield Avenue in Bellevue and into the east side of Cincinnati. Columbia Parkway (US 50) is a horizontal line across the middle of the picture. (You can tell Bellevue has a high population density.)
East on 7th Avenue from McKinney Avenue in Dayton.
Likewise, this is east on 8th from McKinney.
West on an icy, narrow Brooklyn Avenue in Dayton from the east end of that street. The building in the distance on the horizon looked like it may be the Kroger building in downtown Cincinnati, but now I'm not positive.
This street is often omitted from maps, and I assumed it's called High Street because that's what Google Earth called it. Actually, I think it's part of McKinney. It starts at Dayton Avenue near Brooklyn and I used to just assume it was a private drive. This is looking west on this street as it bips away from the rail line.
These columns are betwixt the aforementioned street and the railroad. I don't know what they're for, but it's possible the railroad had a spur where the street is now.
First there was McKinney Avenue. Now there's Edwards Street. That's a presidential ticket I could probably support: Cynthia McKinney/John Edwards! This is looking southwest from the end of Edwards in Dayton. This is facing somewhere around Maple Avenue. (By the way, I went to the end of Maple and was angry to find it in ruins at the hands of the bulldozers. One more lost site.)
Edwards trails off into this secluded path. I'm guessing Edwards itself used to run here. (I thought I saw an old streetlight here, which suggests it was an actual street.)
Ninth Avenue near Thornton in Dayton. Up ahead, the rail line goes under O'Fallon Avenue.
This is looking from the O'Fallon overpass towards the Van Voast Avenue footbridge in Bellevue. O'Fallon Avenue marks most of the border between Bellevue and Dayton.
From the same spot, looking back towards 9th & Thornton. The crane is building a new electric substation.
By poopular demand, a photo of the Peace Bike. This is looking north onto the O'Fallon overpass.
Northwest on Van Voast towards the historic footbridge. In the background you can see the high-rise on the east side of Cincinnati again.
A good close-up of the footbridge! This span represents a gap in Van Voast Avenue. The bridge vanished in the late 1990s or early 2000s but was refurbished and somehow returned to its rightful spot.
It's the tootsie-bridge again! Here I'm walking onto the span.
Weren't you a little hard on the ol' Beav, Ward? From the Van Voast footbridge, this is looking towards the Ward Avenue overpass. Not counting the footbridge, the Belv has 5 street overpasses over this track within only a few blocks.
From the footbridge, this is Gould Alley - the alley that's halfway between Van Voast and Ward. The alley hits a dead end right before the rail line and is flanked by back yards of houses.
Looking down at the railroad from the footbridge. This looks like a smashed radio. It looks like it was a new radio, which is likely because newer radios are such trash that who wouldn't want to smash one?
Still on the footbridge, looking northwest on Van Voast, which resumes at this end of the span. The building on the left is the city hall and police station, and contained the polling place where I cast a vote against Bush in 2000. Now the polling place is in a smaller building just out of reach of this photo.
Nothing too spectacular here. This is southwest on Grandview Avenue in Bellevue, approaching Washington. Grandview hits a dead end ahead, just before the rail line. You can barely see part of the guardrail at the end of Grandview sticking out from behind the stop sign. Even less noticeable is the Fort Wright water tower on the horizon in the distance. The tower is 4½ miles away.