25-May-2024. Cincinnati, Ohio

Today was such a colorful day!

I began the day by heading in to Findlay Market. Finley Market is an indoor market featuring lots of different vendors (mostly food) surrounded by external vendors - if you’re familiar with Faneuil Hall in Boston it’s a similar concept, just on a much smaller scale. To get my steps in I did some walking through the neighborhoods around the market. Even though the neighborhoods are depressed and a bit scary, there sure was a lot of awesome art on the buildings everywhere I looked. Even the above ground subway car is covered in beautiful colorful art.

After the market, I headed into the heart of the City of Cincinnati to check out a suspension bridge. The John Roebling Bridge connects Cincinnati with Covington, Kentucky and is designated as a national historic landmark and a national civil engineering landmark. This bridge is the predecessor (and sometimes referred to as the ‘prototype’) for the famous Brooklyn Bridge which was John and Washington Roebling’s masterpiece. And it’s also colorful! Although originally a sandy brown color, it was repainted in1978 and is now sky blue .

There was an interesting self guided tour of the bridge and here are some facts that I learned: The Roebling Bridge was a state-of-the art high technology wonder that put Cincinnati on the world map when it was formally opened for public use in January, 1867. The bridge was the longest bridge in the world based on the 1,057 foot center span when it opened. The bridge remained the longest in the world until the Brooklyn Bridge was completed 16 years later.

The bridge today has a slightly different look from the original construction. In 1895, a major reconstruction of the bridge was undertaken to increase the load carrying capability of the bridge.The reconstruction work involved the addition of a second pair of suspension cables and was completed in 1899.

The lower cable is the original iron strand cable that is slightly over 12 inches in diameter made up of over 5000 strands of wrought iron wire. The upper cable is the steel strand cable added in the 1890’s reconstruction and is 10 and a half inches in diameter made up of over 2200 strands of steel wire. Both cables are wrapped with a smaller diameter wire.

There are 2 stone buildings (Anchor Houses) at each end of the bridge - here the ends of the suspension cables are anchored into the ground. In each anchor house, the cable end is connected to a chain of 10-foot-long eye-bar links that arc nearly 50 feet downward into the ground to a large anchor plate held in place by tons of stone backfill. There is an anchor house at each corner of the bridge, one for each of the 2 suspension cables. Wow!

I’ve been to lots of museums and exhibits and have gon gotten a lot of “ education” while on the road, so I decided today that I didn’t need to do anything more cerebral (I had already learned so much at the bridge!) so I headed over to the American Sign Museum, not quite knowing what to expect.

The American Sign Museum is “dedicated to the art and history of commercial signs and sign making”. The Museum is proud to be the largest public museum dedicated to signs in the United States! Covering more than 100 years of American sign history in 20,000 square feet of indoor space, there sure is a lot to behold - I know I will never look at another sign again without thinking of the many things I learned here today.

The Sign Museum goes chronologically from early signs which were two dimensional and started getting “ fancy” with font and colors through the addition of lights and neon and moving into plastics and beyond. There were signs in all different shapes and sizes and colors, some were gigantic and others were just pieces or letters of broken signs.

A display I found particularly interesting was how they make different colors of neon signs. Neon light is basically made free m 1 of 2 gases: argon and neon. The argon burns more blue/green and the neon is more red/orange. Initially those were the only two colors they could produce, but eventually they were able to color the glass tubes so that when they added the blue argon to a yellow tube it made for a bright green glow. They actually have a display window into a neighboring neon sign design company where you can watch employees at work if you’re there M-F. I got lucky and saw a couple of workers who were in there on a Saturday- there’s a lot more science than you think that goes into making a neon sign!

I couldn’t resist trying some of the local food while here in Cincinnati. One of the things they are very famous for is their chili. It’s absolutely nothing like the chili we know in New England!

The most famous chili restaurant is a chain called Skyline, founded in 1949 by Greek immigrant Nicholas Lambrinides (1879–1962). Skyline Chili is unique in that it is not chili con carne, the meat dish that originated in (and is the state dish of) Texas. Instead, Cincinnati chili is a sauce usually used over spaghetti or hot dogs, containing a unique spice blend that gives it a very distinct, sweet-and-savory taste (you can definitely discern the cinnamon and cumin). The recipe for Skyline Chili is a well-kept family secret among the Lambrinides' family and so we are left to guess at what it actually contains.

Skyline's menu includes their signature dishes: cheese coneys (a hot dog topped with Skyline Chili, mustard, onions, and cheese), and 3-ways (spaghetti topped with Skyline Chili and cheese); 4-ways (choice of beans or onions added), and 5-ways (beans and onions both added). I opted for the 3-ways.

Gotta say …. I’m not a huge fan. Maybe it’s something that takes getting used to.

But I did love the Graeter’s ice cream!