side A (south)
Harrison, later to become the ninth president of the United States,
was a strong supporter of the Cincinnati & Whitewater Canal project
and a major subscriber of stock in the canal company. He sold
land from his North Bend farm for the canal and tunnel right-
of-way and provided clay and cordwood for manufacturing the bricks
for the tunnel. On March 31, 1836, the steamer Moselle carried
passengers from Cincinnati to the Harrison farm to witness the
canal groundbreaking ceremonies. After his death in 1841, President
Harrison was laid to rest in a tomb on the hill a few hundred
feet above the North Bend portal of the tunnel.
side B (north)
In 1837, Cincinnati merchants projected a branch canal to join the
Whitewater canal at West Harrison, Indiana, with the goal of tapping
commerce from Indiana's Whitewater Valley. The major obstacle on
the route was the ridge between North Bend and Cleves, just
northeast of this site. Engineer Darius Lapham designed a 1.782-
foot tunnel through this barrier. Lined with brick made on site,
the tunnel, 24 feet wide, and 20 ½ feet high, was the first canal
tunnel in Ohio. Six workers died in it's construction. The Cincinnati &
Whitewater Canal opened in 1843 but was abandoned by 1856, after
the main Whitewater Canal had been rendered useless by repeated
flooding. The canal tunnel was subsequently used as a railroad
tunnel from 1863 until 1888, illustrating the progression of
transportation technology in the mid- nineteenth century.
Comments 0 comments