Lane Library Historical Collection - Cincinnati Regional Transportation History

Transportation Timelines
compiled by Cincinnati Regional Transportation History Committee

The goal of the Cincinnati Regional Transportation History Committee (CRTHC) is to compile a comprehensive history of transportation in the region since 1788. Its purpose is to trace the important role of transportation in the settlement and development of Cincinnati and surrounding Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana areas. The task has started with compilation of timelines for various forms of transportation.

Go directly to the Timelines via this link

The timelines track the evolution of transportation from Indian trails, horseback, pack teams, animal-powered wagons, carriages and stagecoaches to flatboats, canalboats, steamboats, steam and diesel powered railroads. People and goods have been conveyed in trucks, streetcars, buses and open cockpit and propeller-powered planes and jets.

Rivers were prime in ending the isolation of the frontier and establishing the economy of the Cincinnati region. From the use of natural waterways, progress has included man-made canals, locks, dams, bridges, tunnels, inclines, viaducts and aqueducts.

Rutted dirt streets and roads -- maintained by local residents or private turnpike companies -- have advanced to ribbons of pavement, planned and financed by governments. Transportation changes -- some privately developed, others supported by government -- have sought ways to haul more people and freight from residences, farms and factories for longer distances and at increased speed with improved efficiency and safety.

About the Timelines
One of the first products of this committee’s efforts is a comprehensive Transportation History Timeline in which 29 individual transportation timelines, called prime timelines, can be used to study any transportation mode’s history, or be merged with others for study purposes, to look at subgroups, and to even look at all of them together as one comprehensive transportation history.

That timeline structure is shown here: PDF file / Excel File.

You’ll note that 21 of the 29 prime timelines are shown in the timeline structure in green as complete. That means they contain all information currently known by the historians working on them. However, nothing in history is ever really complete. One benefit of this website is that you can help by providing information not heretofore known by the committee historians. Three other prime timelines – Stage coaches (STGCO), Ohio Bus Lines (OBL) and Greyhound/Trailways (GHTR) – are under development. If you have any information in these areas, please send them to crthc@lanepl.org.

Five other prime timelines have not yet begun. They include Trucks (operations on roads), Hamilton transit systems (HCL), smaller transit systems like St. Bernard, etc. (SMTRN), Taxis, and early public transportation systems (ERLSYS) like Colonial Stages, Price Hill Coach Line, etc. Contact crthc@lanepl.org to volunteer to work on these.

There are eight merged timelines. Entries are not made directly into these; their data come from mergers of prime timelines and/or other merged timelines below them. For example, Interurban BUS is a merger of Ohio Bus Lines (OBL), Greyhound/Trailways (GHTR) and other early bus transportation systems (ERLSYS). Then, that merged timeline can be merged with RAIL (interurban rail like C&LE) and STGCO (stage coaches) to produce another merged timeline, INTS (all interurban systems).

Meanwhile, running parallel to INTS is the railroad area. It consists of nine prime timelines covering the seven traditional Class 1 railroads in the area plus regional railroads (REGRR) and general railroad data (GENRR) that do not fall in the other eight areas. These nine prime timelines are then merged into RRS which shows all railroad activity in one massive timeline. Then, this merged timeline is merged with the Cincinnati Union Terminal (CUT) timeline and the INTS (all interurban systems) merged timeline to become the RRINT (Railroads & Interurbans) merged timeline.

So, jump in and enjoy! As stated earlier, we welcome comments, questions, corrections, new information, etc. Send your email to crthc@lanepl.org.