Possibly the one thing man has done to most effect the river has been to build the railroad. Indeed several of the small towns up and down the river owe their very existence to the railroad. And with the railroads decline and eventual closing so has the fortunes of these small towns declined.
Incorperated in 1836, the railroad was conceived as the best way to get goods from the capitol and central Ohio to Cincinnati and the Ohio River. This was considered so important to the states future that the railroads first president was govenor Jerimiah Morrow and he served without pay. In 1837 there was a great economic crisis
and the fledgling railroad was unable to buy steel rails and the first bit of track laid actually used wooden rails for a year. The track reached Milford in 1841 and Loveland a year later. Tracks were laid to Xenia in 1845 and Springfield in 1846, a full decade after the company was formed. There the railroad met the track of the Columbus & Xenia railroad and central and northern Ohio were finally linked to the Ohio River. Afterward for decades the Little Miami River Railroad was one of the most profitable railroads in the world. Over time though as the country spread westward, north/south rail lines began to lose their importance to east/west lines and the LMMR declined. In 1870 the LMMR was merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad. The LMMR was operated by the Pennsy till that railroad too eventually declined and went bankrupt and merged into Conrail. With the merger the line was idled except for a few miles closest to Cincinnati which are still in use today. For years the track was unused untill it was converted into the wonderfull Little Miami Bike Trail which follows the railbed the length of the mainstem of the river. My greatgrandfather, several uncles and my great uncle as well as my father all at one time or another worked for the railroad. Even in their day though the railroad had allready passed its glory days and stations at South Lebanon and Kings Mills had already been closed. My Father said he remembers the mail sack being hung on a pole in South Lebanon and was snagged by the trains as they passed without stopping.
Miles and miles of riverbank have been profoundly affected by the railroad as thousands of tons of rock and rubble were dumped along the riverbank by the railroad to controll erosion. Probably the best places to see this are just north of South Lebanon at the "Big Rocks" and at Fosters. My grandfather had a extensive collection of old glass and ceramic insulators that had been left on telegraph poles alongside the abandoned track. Several of these old poles can still be seen poking out of the bushes all along the bike trail. Other neat old reminders of the railroads glory days are the wonderfull old stations kept up bu towns like Yellow Springs or Loveland as well as old markers or signal & water towers at such places as Fort Ancient and Roxanna.
The Little Miami was marketed by the railroad as a sportmans paradise and excursions were offered to fishermen from Cincinnati to towns like Loveland and South Lebanon. Even now the old railbed offers access to thousands of fishermen, hikers, bikers, and birdwatchers every year who use the bike trail to see the wonders of the river.
I was fascinated by the highway bridges that crossed the Little Miami up and down the valley. They were mostly built by the Champion Bridge Company out of Wilmington, and they were big overhead truss bridges. They're all gone now; at one point there was one left at Oregonia, that was closed to traffic.
ReplyDeleteEach road leading into the river valley was similar. There'd be a steep hill going down into the valley, and then it would level out, and come to a railroad crossing. Just on the other side of the rails would be the river crossing, and then another steep hill going up and out. As a kid, I knew all of them, as we'd take family trips on Sundays. The most impressive one was the bridge at Fort Ancient, on SR 350--after crossing the railroad there, the road ramped up to enter the bridge.
The Foster viaduct was in a class all by itself. That is a mighty structure there, that bridge. Since the state is replacing the Jeremiah Morrow bridge on I-71, I wonder if they've got plans to replace Foster viaduct, too. It's got to be 70-80 years old.
I've spent a few afternoons on the bike trail, but would love to go back and really make a trip of it. I went as far as Morrow to the Peter's Cartridge factory and back. I read that there is a newer trail to Lebanon, over the former railroad bridge at Middletown Junction. I'd like to go out on that--when I last saw it, it was carrying a pipeline, and was only approachable by walking up about a mile of abandoned track.