Economies of Scale (1848–51)

Between 1847 and 1852, John built four separate aqueducts for the Delaware and Hudson Canal; moved his home, family, and wire rope factory from western Pennsylvania to Trenton, New Jersey; secured the contract to build a huge railroad bridge over the Kentucky River; and continued to mount substantial campaigns to win contracts to span the Ohio at Wheeling and the Niagara Gorge. The four D&H spans were mini masterpieces of engineering and planning. Each structure was very different; each required new solutions to site-specific problems. One of the spans, the Delaware Aqueduct, exists to this day, the oldest suspension bridge in the United States and one of the oldest “modern” suspension bridges in the world. On the larger projects, John again lost out to his old rival Ellet on both the Wheeling and the Niagara spans.

The Kentucky, Ohio, and Allegheny (1851–60)

After his success at Niagara, John tried to secure further railroad suspension bridge contracts, yet his only success proved to be an absolute albatross. In 1853, he received a contract to build a railroad suspension bridge over the Kentucky River, but he got no further than building the bridge’s towers. The project lingered on for many years, with hope but no money. A similar situation prevailed in Cincinnati. The necessary funding and legislation were secured by 1856, and John was summoned. The project was shut down two years later after the panic of 1857 left the bridge company’s coffers empty. John finally abandoned his two unfinished towers in 1861, there to stand as lonely witnesses to the presence of a coming war. Better news and better financing came to John out of Pittsburgh, where the St. Clair Street Bridge needed replacing. John was offered the contract, and he completed the bridge on time and under budget in 1860.

Distilling in the Ohio River Valley

Industrial-scale distilling required superior transport access to grains and coal, as well as complementary industries such as machine shops, coppersmiths, coopers, lumberyards, stockyards, and slaughterhouses. By the last third of the nineteenthcentury, most of the state’s largest industrial centers were Ohio and Kentucky River cities: Maysville, Covington, Louisville, Owensboro, and Frankfort. City distilleries were located on low-lying river floodplains, and the surrounding streets and railroad tracks were hives of activity, with wagons and railcars delivering grains, barrel staves, and coal and hauling away spent grains and whiskey. Distillery employees often lived in neighborhoods adjacent to the clustered industrial works. Intact remnants of this landscape are rare today, but those that remain are part of the distilling industry’s heritage. Several distilling-related structures are on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Inner Bluegrass Region

By 1830, craft distilling was transitioning into industrial distilling, and works were increasingly focused in the high-quality lands of the Greater Bluegrass region, especially the Inner and Outer Bluegrass. There, distillers could take advantage of springs, perennial streams, fertile soils, and productive farms. These areas also had quality turnpikes and river transport and, eventually, a railroad network. Regional farms supplied grains for distilling, and banks and private investors provided financing. Case studies demonstrate this development in Bourbon, Harrison, Fayette, Franklin, Woodford, and Anderson Counties. Within these areas, large industrial distilleries located along trunk streams, such as the South Fork of the Licking River and the Kentucky River, or their tributary streams. Distillers drew their labor force from county seats, farming neighborhoods, and villages such as Tyrone and Peanickle in Anderson County. Several distillers built large homes in Lawrenceburg,constituting a “Distillers’ Row.”

Assessing Ecosystem Services from the Forestry-Based Reclamation of Surface Mined Areas in the North Fork of the Kentucky River Watershed

Surface mining is a major driver of land use land cover (LULC) change in many mountainous areas such as the Appalachian region. Typical reclamation practices often result in land cover dominated by grass and shrubs. Assessing ecosystem services that can be obtained from a forest landscape may help policy-makers and other stakeholders fully understand the benefits of forestry-based reclamation (FRA). The objectives of this study are to (1) identify how surface mining and reclamation changed the LULC of a watershed encompassing the north fork of the Kentucky River, (2) assess the biophysical value of four major ecosystem services under the contemporary LULC condition, and (3) assess the benefits of the FRA scenario in the provision of ecosystem services. Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to study the LULC change and InVEST software models for ecosystem services assessment. The results indicate that watershed’s forest area has decreased by 7751 hectares from 2001 to 2011 and mining/reclamation activities may have contributed 65% of the overall changes in LULC. Barren and grassland land covers provide less carbon storage, yield more water, and export more sediments and nutrients than forests. At the watershed level, the FRA scenario increased carbon storage (13%) and reduced water yield (5%), sediment export (40%), and nutrient export (7%). The provision of these ecosystem services varies at the subwatershed level, and such spatial heterogeneity is primarily driven by land cover composition, precipitation, and topography. This study provides critical information regarding the ecological benefits of restoring mined land to assist policy and decision making at landscape scales.

Life on the River

This chapter illustrates what it means to live on and with a river, in this case, working, playing, and experiencing the joys and occasional hardships of life on the Kentucky River. The author describes the pace of life as leisurely and peaceful, a place of transcendence. The river provides a place to play and socialize with friends and family, and a place to experience a unity with nature.