The Waldvogel Viaduct is a bridge-like construction connecting the Sixth St Expressway with River Road (U.S. 50), Elberon Avenue, and Warsaw Avenue. This section of Cincinnati is known as Lower Price Hill, and is adjacent to the Incline District.
This viaduct was built to manage automobile traffic and avoid intersecting railroad lines, so that grade crossings would not be required when the Union Terminal train station was constructed in 1933. The viaduct was named after Edward N. Waldvogel (1894-1954), mayor of Cincinnati.
When it was built in 1940, it didn’t cost the city a dime. During construction of Union Terminal, the city vacated streets in Mill Creek Valley to make way for railroad tracks. In exchange, the Union Terminal Company agreed to build the Sixth Street Viaduct at no cost to the city. But when the city came to collect, the terminal company balked. The contract went to court and the city prevailed.
A federal grant covered nearly half of the $600,000 construction cost. The company paid the rest. The dedication address was made by the viaduct’s biggest champion, then-Vice Mayor Waldvogel.
However, this viaduct was rated one of the worst bridges in Ohio, and has required costly maintenance. Finally, the Waldvogel Viaduct was torn down in 2012 and re-built in 2014, at a cost of $55 million. The original cost to build the viaduct, $600,000, would be $10 million in 2012 dollars (using the CPI inflation calculator). Why did the re-build cost 5.5-times more than the original? Lots of reasons! First, the viaduct actually cost more than $600,000. For example, it was extended in 1952, but I could not find this cost. Second, the 2014 re-build was much more extensive, including more road and railroad work than the original viaduct.
The Viaduct is named after Eddie Waldvogel who never lost an election. In 1932, he beat future U.S. Sen. Robert A. Taft for the Ohio State Senate, part of the Democratic landslide that brought Franklin D. Roosevelt to the White House.
He left the Ohio Senate in 1937 and then served on the Cincinnati City Council for 16 years. In 1953, Waldvogel became the mayor. But three months into his term, he was hospitalized for exhaustion, and died May 7, 1954, at the age of 58. Waldvogel, a German name, translates as “forest bird.”
The cache is NOT hidden on the bridge.