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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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.
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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." |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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Downtown Jeffersonville |
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Ohio River Overlook -
Jeffersonville |
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