Beneath your feet, there's a world many of us may not think about: water lines, sewers, electrical lines. But there are bigger spaces that may have been forgotten. We take a look at what lies below Downtown in our regular feature, OKI Wanna Know. This week, WVXU's Bill Rinehart tries to answer three questions about Cincinnati's underground.
Kate Whitaker says she's heard of an abandoned railway tunnel near Lytle Park, in the southeastern corner of Downtown. She says it's not the Lytle Tunnel. It's a little further south and east, beneath the old American Book Building on Pike Street.
There were a lot of railroad tracks around downtown Cincinnati at one point. Historical Sanborn maps, digitized by the public library, show rail yards along the riverfront, and there was one where the casino now sits. But they don't show railroad tracks leading to the block where the American Book Building sits at Pike and Third.
In a previous edition ofOKI Wanna Know, a member of the Cincinnati Railroad Club talked about some of the rail lines on the east side of Downtown. Roy Hord told us in a 2021 interview a railroad tunnel was discovered, but closer to the casino.
"There was a scheme, back probably in the 1870s, to dig a tunnel from the street level, at the bottom of the hill, on the Court Street level, that started the tunnel there straight up to Walnut Hills," Hord says. "It would be underground the whole way. And they actually started to build that, and when they were building Interstate 71, they broke through the roof of that tunnel in one spot."
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That tunnel was filled in and construction of I-71 was completed. Of course, I-71 continues underground, through the Lytle Tunnel, which is close to Pike and Third, but that's not what we're talking about.
Now, about that supposed tunnel under the American Book Building: the current tenants, the David J. Joseph Company, confirm it's a myth. There's nothing like that in their basement. They went down and looked to be sure. And a spokeswoman for the Taft Museum says they don't have a tunnel in their basement either.
Sorry, Kate Whitaker. It's just an urban legend.
What's going on with the Riverfront Transit Center?
Chris White wants to know what's going to happen with the underground transit center beneath Second Street. The Riverfront Transit Center was built at the same time Fort Washington Way was reconstructed. It was dedicated in 2003, with the capability to serve as a light rail and bus station. It's owned by the city of Cincinnati and leased by SORTA. And according to Metro spokeswoman Brandy Jones, two bus routes — 90 the Metro Plus, and Route 85 — run through the RTC.
"Additionally we are in the process right now of preparing and designing Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT," Jones says. "Those two corridors, which will begin actually inside the Riverfront Transit Center, will travel all the way up from Downtown to Hamilton Avenue and Reading Road."
In the meantime, the RTC is also used for charter bus parking during Reds and Bengals games. There's commuter parking down there too, and it's been used during events like BLINK, when Government Square is closed off.
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"There's even been some concerts down there," Jones says. "A few years back I know there was a group that wanted to come in and held a big concert. We're always looking for opportunities to not only use it for transit, but how do we activate it for the community?"
What happened to tours of Cincinnati's subway?
Speaking of underground transportation, Matt Jacob wants to know why tours of the abandoned subway were discontinued.
Cincinnati started building a subway after the end of the first World War. The Downtown segment is where old Miami and Erie Canal ran, with what is now Central Parkway built on top of it. Two miles of underground tunnels were finished in 1923, but the money ran out, and the project was abandoned.
Janice Porter Forte coordinates tours with Cincinnati Heritage Programs.
"We've put people through the Suspension Bridge. We were the first people to do brewery tours," she says. "We've talked about and taken people up and down the steps that were closed to the inclines. We've taken people to the tower of City Hall."
She first proposed taking tours into the abandoned subway. From 2003 to 2017, volunteers led tour groups of up to 50 people underground.
"It was dark. There were never any lights put in," she says. "And so everybody would be carrying flashlights, and we would walk from that Race Street area around the bend where the YMCA is."
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A Cincinnati spokeswoman says the tours ended because there were safety issues that created a liability for the city. Specifically, there's no permanent lighting, there's no safety railing, and there's a high pressure water main in the tunnel.
Porter Forte says it was tough for her when they ended.
"Because everything in this city has a story, an important story to each and every one of us. And that's what we as docents try to get across."
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