USA Guide
The Great Lakes
Downtown
Downtown Cincinnati rolls back from the Ohio River to fill a flat basin area ringed by steep hills. During the city's emergent industrial years, the filth, disease, and crime drove the middle classes from downtown en masse. Nowadays, however, attractive stores, street vendors, restaurants, cafés, open spaces, and gardens occupy the area. The city's rich blend of architecture is best appreciated on foot. Over, among, and even right through the hotel plazas, office lobbies, and retail areas, the Skywalk network of air-conditioned passages spans sixteen city blocks.
At the geographic center of downtown, the Genius of the Waters in Fountain Square sprays a cascade of hundreds of jets, meant to symbolize the city's trading links. Looming above Fifth and Vine streets, the 48-story, Art Deco Carew Tower has a viewing gallery on its top floor that gives a wonderful panorama of the tight bends of the Ohio River and the surrounding hillsides (Mon– Thurs 9.30am–5.30pm, Fri & Sat 9.30am–9pm, Sun 11am–5pm; $2).
Just east of Fountain Square are the Art Deco headquarters of the detergents and hygiene-product giant Procter & Gamble. The company was formed in 1837 by candle-maker William Procter and soap-maker James Gamble, to exploit the copious supply of animal fat from the slaughterhouses of "Porkopolis," as Cincinnati was then known. By sponsoring radio's The Puddle Family in 1932, the company created the world's first soap opera.
South across I-71, Paul Brown Stadium, home of the Bengals, and the Reds' Great American Ballpark, are giant cement additions on the Cincinnati side of the Ohio River. In between the two stands the new National Underground Railroad Freedom Museum (Tues– Sun 11am–5pm; $12; 
513/333-7500, 
www.freedomcenter.org ), whose light and airy space chronicles the city's role in the emancipation of slaves as well as other worldwide struggles for freedom. A mile-long riverside walk begins at Public Landing, at the bottom of Broadway, and stretches east past painted showboats and the Bicentennial Commons, a 200th-birthday present from the city to itself in 1988.
Opening time: Daily
Price: Free