Monday, May 10, 2021 (continued)
While following the Ohio River Scenic Byway, we spotted a sign for Grant's Birthplace in Point Pleasant, OH, and made a quick stop.
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Grant Memorial Bridge (1985, with cannons, beacons, and
stone work incorporated from the original 1927 bridge) (KSS) |
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Grant's Birthplace (1817) was where Union General and
President Ulysses S Grant was born on April 27, 1822 |
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| Skyline Chili has the best version of Cincinnati Chili! |
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Purple People Bridge was originally the Newport-
Cincinnati Bridge (1872, as a first railroad bridge
between Cincinnati and Kentucky, then in 1897 the piers
were widened and larger trusses installed to accommodate
a horse and cart path and two streetcar tracks) |
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In the 1940s it was converted into an automobile bridge,
and where one of the streetcar tracks was sandwiched
between the trusses became a pedestrian walkway; now
the bridge is for pedestrians only |
NB: Holy crumbling infrastructure!! The Purple People Bridge was closed the next day (5/11/2021) after a stone in the first pier fell into the river and caused loosening of other stones.
We have been to Cincinnati on several occasions:
1988,
2016, and
2018 (multiple posts).
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| Newport, KY Aquarium |
*On 9/28/1803, Meriwether Lewis arrived in Cincinnati to allow the crew to rest for a few days and to take on provisions. Lewis then sent the keelboat ahead, as he went by land to visit Big Bone Lick. President Thomas Jefferson had requested that Lewis pick up some bones of giant mammals that were preserved in an old salt lick.* |
Purple People Bridge view of the Cincinnati skyline
and possible landing for Meriwether Lewis |
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We encountered several of these temporary one-lane
situations along the Ohio River Scenic Byway |
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| Lewis & Clark Historical Marker Side B |
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A diorama of the Big Bone Lick where it was once surmised
that these Megafauna period mammals got mired in the
marshy ground around sulfur springs and died |
Now the thinking is that the early First Peoples discovered where these creatures congregated and came here to hunt them. Whatever the reason, the area was full of big bones, including those of extinct mastodons, mammoths, North American horses, ground sloths, and tapirs, as well as the still living bison, musk oxen, and peccaries.
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| Harlan's Ground Sloth |
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| Replica skeleton of Harlan's Ground Sloth |
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Lonicera maackii/Amur Honeysuckle, an invasive,
lines the Ohio River Scenic Byway |
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Some Bison bison/American Bison survived the
salt lick but are now behind fences at Big Bone Lick |
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| See the two smaller tan spots? Those are bison calves! (KSS) |
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| Evidence of bison: a patty and fur on the fence |
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Jeffersonville, IN: painted doorway
in the floodwall |
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| Clarksville, IN view of Louisville, KY |
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We missed the great snowstorm of
Populus deltoides/Eastern Cottonwood seeds |
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The dicey way to get to the Falls of the Ohio fossil beds
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*On 10/14/1803, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark united at the Falls of the Ohio.* |
When They Shook Hands (2003, by
Carol Grende) was dedicated to the memory
of author Stephen E Ambrose, whose most
popular work was Undaunted Courage:
Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and
the Opening of the American West |
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The Falls of the Ohio consisted of a series of rapids and
cascades that dropped the river a total of 24 feet in two miles;
however, now that drop is accomplished in a matter of a few feet
by the McAlpine Dam (1830 with updates) |
All the dam gates were open so that the Devonian-era coral reef (which existed 350 million years ago) was inundated with water. At times, the fossil beds are exposed on the Ohio shore.
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| Perhaps a small section of the Devonian fossil beds |
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| Nautical bicycle rack |
Next: Lewis & Clark Trip Day 4.
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