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Colgate Clock

State State and Woerner Ave • Jeffersonville, Indiana

The Colgate-Palmolive plant is located in the old Indiana Reformatory for Men. Constructed in the late 19th century, this Romanesque structure was sold to Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Company in 1923. Reopened the following year as a soap factory, the facility is now Southern Indiana's oldest civilian employer, producing a broad range of soaps, detergents, and personal care products. The Colgate Clock is the second largest timepiece in the world, exceeding London's Big Ben. Measuring 40 feet in diameter with hands of 16 and 20 1/2 feet respectively, the Colgate Clock has been a major Southern Indiana landmark for nearly seven decades.

 

George Rogers Clark Homesite

Harrison & Bailey Avenues • Clarksville, Indiana
Seasonal Hours; www.fallsoftheohio.org


In 1803 General George Rogers Clark built a cabin on a rocky point high above the Falls of the Ohio overlooking the town of Louisville, which he had founded in 1778.

A few months after settling here, he witnessed the departure of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase territory and then welcomed the adventurers upon their return in 1806.

Clark also entertained visitors such as John James Audubon, the famed artist, who made more than 200 bird sketches while living in the Louisville area; Vice-President Aaron Burr, who had invested money in Clark's Grant; and numerous Indian chiefs

In his official capacities, Clark presided over meetings of the Clarksville Board of Trustees and the board of commissioners responsible for surveying Clark's Grant. Like his friend President Thomas Jefferson, Clark possessed considerable scientific curiosity. He conducted extensive studies of Native American burial sites in the Falls vicinity and engaged in studies of the bones from Big Bone Lick which drew favorable response from President Jefferson and marked Clark as an authority on the mastodon.

In 1809 Clark suffered a severe stroke and fell into his fireplace, causing burns that necessitated the amputation of his right leg. Unable to care for himself any longer, he moved to Locust Grove, the home of his sister and brother-in-law in eastern Jefferson County outside Louisville. There he died in 1818. Today Clark's Point is part of the Falls of the Ohio State Park and a replica cabin of Clark's is open for tours. 

See history being relived with events such as "A Visit to the General" to mark the Indians annual visit to the General and "Clarksville Heritage Festival" to portray the departure of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from here. 

 

 

Sherman Minton Bridge

This graceful, twin-arched double-decked span, which carries Interstate 64 between New Albany and Louisville, was completed in 1962 at a cost of $14.8 million. It is named for US Senator and Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton, who was born in Georgetown and practiced law in New Albany. Designed by the Louisville firm of Hazelet & Erdal, it was named the most beautiful long-span bridge of 1961 by the American Institute of Steel Construction.
 

 

New Albany Riverfront Amphitheater

Center of the action on the New Albany Riverfont, this outdoor showplace accommodates up to 10,000 persons for activities ranging from Bluegrass music shows and fireworks displays to rock concerts and visiting symphony orchestra performances.
 

 

John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge

Designed by the Louisville engineering firm of Hazelet & Erdal, this six-lane, single-deck cantilever span links Jeffersonville and Louisville via Interstate 65. Construction began in the spring of 1961 and was completed in late 1963 at a cost of $10 million. The span still unnamed when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. Four days later, Kentucky Governor Bert T. Combs announced bipartisan agreement among officials of both Kentucky and Indiana that the bridge should be named in memory of the fallen president. The bridge was dedicated and opened for northbound traffic on December 6th. Southbound traffic started flowing a few weeks later.
 

 

 

Big Four Bridge

Built in the 1890s for the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company, this span has suffered a checkered career. Two major construction accidents took the lives of 61 workers before the bridge was completed in 1895. In January 1918 two interurban cars crashed, killing three passengers and injuring twenty. Several years ago, after a series of railroad mergers made the bridge expendable, its approaches were removed, and today the Big Four is the "Bridge that goes nowhere."
 

 

George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge
"The Second Street Bridge"

Opened in 1929 as the Municipal Bridge, this span was the first to carry highway traffic alone between Louisville and southern Indian. The concrete and steel structure was designed by architect Paul R. Cret and the engineering firm of Modjeski and Masters.

The firm's senior partner was Ralph Modjeska, son of Madame Helen Modjeska, for whom Schimpff's Confectionery's Modjeska caramels are named. Awarded the construction contract was the American Bridge Company of Pittsburgh, which submitted the low bid of $1.2 million. The Municipal Bridge operated on a toll basis until 1946, with proceeds used to retire construction revenue bonds. Three years later, the span was renamed the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge in honor of the founder of Louisville and Clarksville.

Today the Clark-Floyd Counties Convention & Tourism Bureau administrative offices are located in the toll collections headquarters.  The building has many of its original fixtures. 
 

 

 

Quartermaster Depot

Designed by Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs and first occupied in 1874, this magnificent collection of 19th century industrial and warehouse buildings covers four square blocks. The original brick structures had a total capacity of 2.7 million cubic feet. One architectural historian has described the complex as "functional architecture of the highest quality." The original interior grounds were designed by the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead. The Jeffersonville Quartermaster Depot, which by the end of World War II extended for more than 10 city blocks, supplied equipment for the armed forces until 1957. The original section is now a commercial complex known as the Quadrangle. Unfortunately, the structure suffered a devastating fire in January 1993. The blaze destroyed a large portion of the southeast corner, the remains of which have been razed.  Many of the buildings are being refurbished and will house various businesses. 
 

 

 

Jeffboat

By 1940, battered by the Great Depression and the 1937 flood, the Howard Ship Yards had fallen on hard times. In 1942 the US Navy purchased the facility and several adjoining properties and turned them over to the Jeffersonville Boat & Machine Company, or Jeffboat, for the production of landing craft and other warships. By the end of World War II, Jeffboat had launched 123 LST' (Landing Ship-Tank), 26 submarine chaser, and hundreds of other craft. After the war, Jeffboat turned to building barges and towboats, but it also has turned out such custom-built vessels as the luxury paddlewheeler Mississippi Queen, Opryland's General Jackson, and the coastal cruise ship Monterey Clipper. Today, Jeffboat, Inc. is America's largest inland shipbuilder and one of Southern Indiana's largest industrial employers.
 

 

 

Town Clock Church

Located at the corner of Third and Main Streets, this recently restored Greek Revival church has been a landmark since 1852, when it was completed by the congregation of the Second Presbyterian Church. For decades the structure’s most outstanding feature was a 160-foot clock tower, which signaled New Albany’s location to the Ohio River boatmen. The original tower has since been shortened, but it remains distinctive. Owned since 1889 by the Second Baptist Church, an African-American congregation, the structure is said to have been a way station on the Underground Railroad before the Civil War.
 

 

Kentucky & Indiana Bridge

Erected between 1910 and 1912, the existing Kentucky and Indiana Bridge replaced an earlier span that opened in 1886. Built primarily to carry railroad and local interurban traffic between New Albany and Louisville, the K&I was one of the largest and heaviest plain truss bridges in the world at the time it was completed. The complete span, including approaches, measured nearly 6,000 feet in length and 225 feet in height from its highest point to the normal river surface. The bridge’s 70-foot width originally included two pairs of railroad lines flanked by wagon ways paved with creosoted wooden blocks. These blocks handled automobile traffic until 1952, when they were replaced with a steel gridwork. The K&I accommodated vehicular traffic until early 1979, when a road bed partially collapsed under the weight of an overloaded gravel truck. It continues to carry railroad traffic.
 
 
Downtown Jeffersonville

 

Ohio River Overlook - Jeffersonville

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