Why Do The Subway Disembark?

Yet, the Kilgour Family Streetcar was not the only failed transit-stop on the journey to finding the light at the end of the tunnel for Oakley; the light being an efficient, reliable transportation system to serve its residents. Everyday Cincinnati encounters hundreds of commuters, residents, shoppers, and unbeknownst to most, right below all the hustle and bustle rests seven miles of ruined tunnel and six subway stops, America’s longest derelict subway, the Cincinnati Subway. Decades later, the underground tunnels are silent with tracks fading into the shadows, looking as though time is frozen. Stations remain untouched as they anticipate the arrival of commuters that will never disembark. In what once could have been turnstiles, entrances
are now barred by fences, obstructed by brick walls, and jammed with concrete.
It was the beginning of the twentieth century once Cincinnati decided to undergo construction to build its subway system. For subway construction to commence, draining the Miami and Erie Canal, which cut through the city’s core, was imperative. In 1884, a newspaper illustration, exhibiting a canal covered my newly paved streets and trains running underground, truly sparked the brainstorming of a subway system in Cincinnati. Unfortunately, World War I and the dawn of the Great Depression destroyed any chance the subway had in obtaining the appropriate funding for construction.
In early 1912, the city hired transit planner’s from Boston and Chicago who drafted six different rapid transit loops. The original plan appraised at $12 Million, which was soon reduced to a $6 Million proposal