CINCINNATI'S NORTHEAST SIDE
Mar. 5 2009
PART 1

Someone had long ago suggested taking the Peace Bike to Cincinnati's elusive northeast. And it took this long to find a bikeable route there! But this outing opened up a whole new window of opportunity.






From the Gilbert Avenue Viaduct, this is northwest on Eggleston Avenue. As you can see, this corner of downtown has the now-familiar building with the Indiana casino advertisement.




This incarnation of the Gilbert Avenue Viaduct (which opened around 1975) splits into 2 one-way legs that feed into 7th and 8th. The viaduct carries US 22/OH 3. Here we're on the 8th Street leg, looking west. The road on ground level on the right is Reedy Street.




From the Gilbert Avenue Viaduct, looking north on Reedy. The building up on the hill straight ahead is Channel 5.




Just a few blocks northeast on Gilbert Avenue was this ditch. This is looking south, just north of the Liberty Street ramps. I have no idea what this graffiti-filled ditch was for. It probably had nothing to do with the ill-fated subway project that was abandoned in 1925, though there was once a tangle of railroad tracks somewhere near here.





Now we're in Eden Park, but I originally didn't have any idea exactly where this fenced-off road is, or what it goes to. Turns out it's the abandoned road running to Parkside & Martin.




From the same spot, this is looking several miles into Northern Kentucky, past Newport. You can clearly see I-471 past Grand Avenue, with St. Luke Hospital East on the hill above that. Distance: almost 3 miles.




Still in Eden Park, we're going northeast on Eden Park Drive, where it goes under Cliff Drive.




From the Lakes Drive area of Eden Park, this is another shot of I-471 - again looking past Grand Avenue. In front of that you see a distinctive church dome in Bellevue. Unless the zoom on the Eyewitness Cam is even stronger than I thought, I'm in disbelief that that's the Cold Spring water tower in the background, because that's 7 miles away.




From how many different angles can you photograph the I-471 bridge anyway? This is from the Lakes Drive area again. Behind that span, you see the Purple People Bridge, the Taylor-Southgate Bridge, and even a teensy-weensy smidgen of the 4th Street bridge between Newport and Covington. In the foreground though you can see the Trail to Nowhere.




Still more from Lakes Drive! This is a view of Bellevue and Dayton, KY. The dividing line of O'Fallon Avenue is nearly in the middle. I-471 appears again on the right. In the foreground (on the Ohio side of the river) is the forbidden zone behind the end of the Trail to Nowhere.




Again from Lakes Drive, this is US 52 - Riverside Drive, the former Eastern Avenue. The Ohio River nudges in on the right.




Yet another view from Lakes Drive, this is the 5-lane Columbia Parkway - part of US 50. No trace of the red X's and green arrows that were once posted overhead on Columbia Parkway seems to exist anymore.




As if all that wasn't roadly enough, this photo is from a bridge where Eden Park Drive becomes Park Avenue. This is looking down at Kemper Lane. Francis Lane comes off on the left. In the background, note the Ohio River - and behind that, you can see the Dodd Drive work in front of the Dayton floodwall.




East on Madison Road. It took that long to go 700 yards?




East on Erie Avenue. From Edwards Road to Michigan Avenue, Erie becomes Hyde Park Square, which is this block with shops and an island of green space in the median.




This is north on Tarpis Avenue, but this was so clearly residential that I had to photograph it very sneakily - thus the strange angle. Apparently, I evaded a police car parked at the bottom of the block waiting to nab me for the "crime" of photographing roads.




Erie Avenue goes over this rail line near Saybrook Avenue. This is on the Erie Avenue bridge (which bears a date of 2001), looking west. The bridge in the distance is Marburg Avenue.




It's amazing how when you live in an area with hardly any bike lines, you get so worked up over a bike lane that lasts 2 minutes. This is northeast on Erie, from Ashworth Drive to the Duck Creek bridge - and the bike lane doesn't even last that long.




On Erie Avenue, looking southeast on Duck Creek, which is channeled into this ditch.




South on Red Bank Road, where Erie Avenue goes over it.

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