The Ohio River Valley, where Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky are situated, has long been known as a land of special promise. For centuries, various American Indian tribes revered the lush valley where several smaller rivers join the Ohio River to be sacred hunting grounds. Indians from throughout the Midwest would travel to what is now Cincinnati to hunt the huge herds of bison and other game that frequented the area.
Word soon spread about this "promised land" as European immigrants began to travel west during the last half of the 18th century. Part of the Northwest Territory ceded to the United States in 1783 by England, the area where Cincinnati now exists was considered among the most fertile land on the continent.
As the only spot along the Ohio River where the steep hills did not come to the river's banks, the area that would become Cincinnati was a natural setting for a great city.
On December 28, 1788, a group of hearty pioneers beached their riverboats directly across the Ohio River from the mouth of Northern Kentucky's Licking River, and Cincinnati was born.
After the Indian threat was ended through fierce fighting in the mid-1790's, Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky grew rapidly. Its dense forests and fertile river valley soil provided area settlers with ample natural resources. The superior river transportation network created by the convergence of the Ohio, Licking, and Great Miami rivers also allowed local surpluses to be shipped to New Orleans for nationwide distribution.
Cincinnati's agricultural riches quickly turned this booming and boisterous river town into the nation's top hog market, earning the city the nickname "Porkopolis" by 1820. A wave of German immigrants also made Cincinnati equally famous for its tasty beer and German heritage, as it became the nation's top beer producing (and consuming) city.
During the riverboat heydays of the 19th century, Cincinnati was among the nation's largest and busiest inland water ports. A major stop for commercial and pleasure vessels traveling down the Ohio to the Mississippi River and New Orleans, Cincinnati's big-time city sophistication rivaled that of almost any other city. Its sophistication and growth was so renown that shortly after the Civil War, the New York Times declared Cincinnati to possess the most metropolitan atmosphere of any city outside New York.
So rapid was the growth of Cincinnati that by 1860, it was the sixth-largest US City and the unquestioned manufacturing capital of the nation. When New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley wrote his famous lines in 1850, "Go West young man, and grow up with the country," he was talking about the Midwest and in particular, Cincinnati. Greeley also predicted that, "within 50 years, Cincinnati will become the greatest city on earth."
Such fame, fortune and location prompted many influential people to advocate relocating the US capital to Cincinnati as early as 1830. The movement culminated in 1879 with an actual convention in Cincinnati on moving the nation's capital, where nothing was accomplished and the movement died.
When the riverboat era faded into the railroad age in the late 19th century, Cincinnati also relinquished its title as the center of westward migration and growth. Although it remained a prosperous city, gone forever was Cincinnati's dream of becoming the world's greatest metropolis as giants such as Chicago and St. Louis mushroomed on the western frontier.
As other cities were expanding in the pioneer spirit Cincinnati long discarded, the city matured. The "Queen City of the West" (a title made popular by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1854) embraced its dominant German culture by creating large annual cultural festivals and erecting nationally famous cultural institutions like Music Hall, Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Cincinnati Art Academy in the late 1800's.
Cincinnati had slipped from sixth to ninth place in population by 1900, but it remained one of the nation's most important cities. A world manufacturing leader in numerous industries such as printing materials, shoes, leather goods, machine tools and soap, Greater Cincinnati's labor force paid one-sixth of the first national tax bill when Federal income tax began in 1916.
The city gained the world's spotlight once again in the early 1930's when Cincinnati had the distinction of opening the world's largest municipal airport (Lunken Airport) and train terminal (Union Terminal). With its manufacturing clout in place, Cincinnati played a key role in the World War II effort by producing fighter plane engines and other critical war materials.
Today, Greater Cincinnati finds itself a thriving, mid-sized city that continues to be a leader in many business and cultural affairs. Cincinnati is once again among the country's fastest growing cities, and it is attracting world attention with its rapidly expanding airport and unusually strong foreign export market.
Always a city with tremendous community pride, Cincinnati grandly observed its 200th birthday in 1988 with a yearlong celebration that saw citizens volunteer more than one million hours and $69 million. As part of the celebration, an expansive city park was dedicated at the spot where the city founders landed.
In 2000, the city went "hog wild" with its display of fiberglass pigs. Described as the "Big Pig Gig," hundreds of individuals and corporate sponsors anted up to display pigs of all sizes, shapes and distinctions. The event, which raised money for charity, was a huge success and a lot of fun.
