CINCINNATI - SOUTHWEST SIDE
June 2007
PART 2
Brower Road eventually becomes Lawrenceburg Road. I traveled the route from the town of North Bend to Miamiview Road, and let me just tell you that on a bike it just goes on forever! There isn't much traffic except for oil tankers, and there's not much along the road except a large power plant and an oil company facility. This photo looks off towards what I think may be a floodplain near the mouth of the Great Miami River.
At one point on this road, I was only about 200 feet from the Indiana state line. In a couple of places, the I-275 bridge near Lawrenceburg, IN, started to pop into view. I don't know if Lawrenceburg Road ever was US 50, since it may have gone to Lawrenceburg only before U.S. highways were invented.
At Miamiview Road, Lawrenceburg Road makes a left and uses this dandy little bridge over the Great Miami River. Note also that we're entering Whitewater Township (which, contrary to popular belief, was not named after that bogus investigation against the Clintons that turned up nothing).
Looking upstream on the swollen Great Miami. Notice that weird island.
Continuing on the amazing Lawrenceburg Road! I guess this is kind of a floodplain through here. (I bet this has been under water a lot in the past few years.)
Now we're going back east on US 50, and we're about to cross the Whitewater River. US 50 is paralleled by a rail line through western Hamilton County. To the right of the road, you can see the rusty framework for the rail bridge.
I'm thinking this might also be east on US 50. Some will deny that this is east on US 50. But I have this funny, sinking, gut feeling that it is. This is what travelers from St. Louis to Cincinnati might have seen back before the Interstates were built. Here we're looking east from the junction with Kilby Road.
US 50 becomes a divided highway as it crosses the Great Miami River here. Thus, the eastbound side (which we're on) uses the bridge with no framework, while the westbound side uses the span with the framework you see on the left.
From the Great Miami bridge on US 50, this is the bridge that carries the rail line. Pretty nifty how things exist, ain't it?
This is on US 50 back in the city. I think the Waldvogel Viaduct (which is a mile ahead) is just above the yellow warning sign, but I was so tired that it could just be a mirage.
A few notes: I avoided Hillside Avenue (which used to be the preferred bike route) because a few years ago all the broken glass from US 50 seemed to mysteriously levitate its way there, and because people started driving too fast on it. (Ohio's rightist machine was known for purposely making life hard for bicyclists.) As an alternate to US 50, I did use Idaho Street and Southside Avenue, with much better results.
From US 50, looking across the Ohio River to Ludlow, KY.
There's all sorts of neet views of the 'Nati if you look hard enough and if the conditions are right. I think this one is new to this website (except for the distant shot in part 1). This is from US 50. The bridge up ahead is the rail span to Ludlow.