Cincinnati's Abandoned Subway

Does the Free Press archive not have anything on it? If not, maybe a library search request with the city library or Wayne State would help...

If not any of those, I'm curious what the historical societies or maybe some offbeat publication like the Motor City Muckraker might be able to dredge up.

Rochester's subway was more like light rail from what I understand (i.e., what they have in Buffalo now). A large portion of it was a re-purposed aqueduct from the Erie Canal, so it wasn't quite the most ambitious subway system. If it had stuck around longer past the 40s though I imagine it could have evolved into quite a formidable system.

That's a shame. You used to be able to walk that tunnel to a railroad embankment that you could see into the Redwings games from.

Another tunnel one can hike through is at Donner Pass: https://californiathroughmylens.com/donner-pass-summit-tunne...

It can also be seen in photos on the linked site.

A redundant water main was built in the 90s partly so the one in the tunnel could be quickly removed if needed.

The new one was built as part of the Fort Washington Way rebuild.

London has several abandoned stations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_and_unopened_Lo...

Mostly due to location no longer suitable, ie too close to another station, or issues with access. Or structurally unsafe and uneconomical to refurbish, maybe some was damaged too much from the Blitz.

And not all are passenger stations. Some were for maintenance, post etc.

Royal Mail did have its own tube line: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Post_Office_Railway

There's a full second subway station at Berlins "Rathaus Steglitz" station. The original plan was that two subways were supposed to cross here, but that never happened and it remains the terminus of the U9. Somebody built a fully furnished room in another part of the Berlin subway network: https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/berlin/zimmer-im-tunnel-geni...

In the last 5-ish years they've discontinued that particular tour, citing insurance reasons. The tour was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I got to do it and bummed that others aren't getting to. I got a bit of a "megalophobia" feeling standing beside the immense water main that runs down the southbound tunnel.

A great video of a couple guys exploring Cincinnati's subway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY6A0_uxyvs

Meh. What you're saying is sort of true although I wouldn't put my tinfoil hat on about LaGuardia. The 2nd Avenue subway was shut down because it wasn't actually a subway, it was an El. El's make a lot of noisy ruckus that people in the surrounding area weren't keen on and trains can't run as fast on their tracks. When the El was torn down it was assumed that a new subway tunnel would be built where it used to be in short order (it's kind of a bit difficult to bore holes under a street that's supporting an elevated structure so it was supposed to be done in phases). Unfortunately due to bureaucratic snafus, lack of funding, and general apathy, the 2nd Avenue Line has only recently sort of come to fruition (but not really).

Chicago certainly has a subway. Sure, only a portion near downtown runs underground, while the rest is elevated (the L) but their system is the second-largest in the US.

It's really not that much of a stretch. Population-wise, Cincinnati is roughly comparable to Hamburg or Budapest, which have had thriving subways since 1912 and 1896 respectively. What's interesting here is America's general disinterest / incompetence in building them, New York excepted.

Not exactly subways, but indeed many cities had streetcars which were then gutted for car/oil profits..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...

I think it likely if the streetcars had grown, they probably would have been converted into subways, etc. and more extensive public transit generally..

although postwar prosperity probably helped as well (whereas europe had to rebuild)

Chicago’s Red Line and Blue Line are both underground near the Loop.

Chicago's Red Line is around 22 miles long but is underground for, I'm estimating, about 7 miles (roughly Armitage to Roosevelt). That's as long as the subway bring talked about here. So if this is a subway, then Chicago definitely has a subway.

The Blue Line is underground for probably about the same distance (goes under South of Addison and then hits the Loop, heads West, and reemerges West of Clinton).

My estimate might be a bit off, I'll just going off my mental map of the city.

My guess is the great depression killed funding or interests.

Growing up there I remember hearing that there was some problem with the tunnels being too narrow and the cars not fitting - but that was probably more local folklore than anything else.

Cincinnati is pretty hilly - not San Francisco or Seattle hilly - but enough that I would think developing any sort of system would be pretty expensive and difficult.