The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, Cincinnati,
Roebling's 1867 precursor to the Brooklyn Bridge,
at the height of the 1937 flood
January 24, 1937: The Ohio River Flood of 1937 peaks. Damage stretches from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers flow together to form the Ohio (hence "Three Rivers"); to Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio flows into the Mississippi River.
It was believed that 385 people were killed, 1 million people lost their homes, and, this being the Great Depression, recovery services were stretched to the limit.
Cincinnati, Ohio was particularly hard-hit, especially in its West End, where the Mill Creek flowed into the Ohio. Among the buildings flooded was Crosley Field, home of baseball's Cincinnati Reds, as seen in this photo.
John McDonald, the Reds' traveling secretary, got an idea. He and pitcher Lee Grissom got in a rowboat, and rowed over the left field fence. Also rowing over was a photographer, and the picture occasionally appears in books about the Reds, and in books about long-ago ballparks.
Also flooded in Cincinnati was the Coney Island amusement park, 10 miles upriver from downtown, named for the Brooklyn park of the same name, and the namesake of the chili hot dog known as the coney, a Midwestern favorite. The carousel was broken up, and horses from it were found as far downriver as Paducah, Kentucky, over 300 miles downriver.
(Although some buildings, such as a music amphitheater, are still on the site, Cincy's Coney Island was essentially moved inland, to avoid flooding, in 1972, and renamed Kings Island.)
Ironically, when the Reds moved out of Crosley Field in 1970, their new home, Riverfront Stadium, was, as its name suggests, closer to the Ohio River. But it was built on top of a parking deck, making flooding of the stadium part of the complex impossible. Riverfront's 2003 successor, Great American Ball Park, is adjacent, and is also unlikely to ever face flooding.
This building, including a furniture store, in Milton, Kentucky, shows the high-water marks of 4 separate floods, including 1 as recently as 1997. The 1937 flood's mark is halfway up the 2nd floor.
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January 24, 1937 was a Sunday. The football season was over. Baseball was in the middle of the off-season. And there was no NBA yet. But all 8 teams then playing in the NHL were in action:
* The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at the old Madison Square Garden (which was still kind of new).
* The New York Americans played the Boston Bruins to a tie, 6-6 at the Boston Garden.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons, 2-1 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-1 at the Chicago Stadium.