COVINGTON, KY - SOUTH SIDE
Mar. 2007
PART 1
I spent most of a day biking to South Covington and creating this 2-part set of photos, because Cincinnati Bell's incompetence had caused my Internet access to be cut off for a week. South Covington is the section of Covington south of Latonia, and was probably designated by anti-city ideologues to distinguish it from the rest of Covington. Though in the city of Covington, South Covington runs for quite a few miles through a seemingly rural area along KY 17.
I biked through Covington's Latonia section on the way to South Covington. This is looking southeast on Caroline Street from 34th. Caroline forms an underpass beneath the rail line.
A view of I-275 us city folk seldom see. This photo contains 3 incorporated places: The intersection in the foreground of KY 17 and the Dudley Road extension is in Edgewood, the field and viaduct behind that are in Fort Wright, and the hill in the background is in Covington. The viaduct is part of that which carries I-275 over KY 17 and Banklick Creek. (The part of Fort Wright I saw on this outing was a separate municipality called Lakeview until 1978, but hardly anyone remembers it.)
The border betwixt Covington and Fort Wright near here runs along the same rail line that looms over Caroline Street, and here we're in Fort Wright. This is south on Old Madison Pike, which is the old KY 17. This is the road you would have taken to go from Covington to Independence before about 1980. This part of old KY 17 is the unsigned KY 3148 - a number it carries only from the current KY 17 south to the state highway garage, which is either one of the buildings ahead on the left or another facility behind those buildings.
Continuing south on old KY 17. I know it looks like the ancient KY 17, but it actually was still KY 17 in my lifetime! The rail line uses that overpass, which bears a date from the 1910s.
My topographic maps show that this rural spot is right on the edge of Covington. Actually some maps label this area as a village called Maurice Station or just Maurice. We're looking north on old KY 17.
KY 17 used to continue here as a bridge over Banklick Creek. I think the bridge was still open until about 1990, when this was no longer KY 17. Now you have to use Bullock Pen Road, which is to the right of that house.
This part of Bullock Pen Road runs to the southwest towards a dammed lake. The rail line appears again as that overpass. This is actually in Erlanger.
Look at that cool and broccoli water (as I used to think that Little River Band song said)! This is looking upstream on Banklick Creek from the replacement bridge. This is right where I encountered a raccoon at work a few years earlier.
This is at the other approach for the now-destroyed KY 17 bridge over Banklick Creek. On the other side of the creek you can see the abandoned approach pictured above that has a house next to it.