Cleveland: West River Street by Gaslight In 1873

This view shows Cleveland’s “Flats” area at the time when it was a bustling hive of industrial activity. The Cuyahoga River, narrow, yet navigable for several miles inland from Lake Erie, was ideal for locating steel making plants and the whole variety of manufacturing that was associated with it. The river was the life line through which bulk cargoes of iron ore arrived and the industrial products were shipped away. Before the steam engine came into use in ships in the early eighteenth century, this major river port was a forest of masts, and it would take another hundred years before sail would no longer be seen on the river.

In this scene, a hog framed freighter, moored at the wharf, helps define the activity on the gas lit street as a late delivery is being made. Peculiar to the lakes region, this type was a common sight in all lake ports. The arches, built into the side of the vessels, prevented the hulls of wooden ships from “hogging” or bending to take the shape of an uneven surface should they be stranded high and dry at low water. Cargo ships and passenger ships alike adopted this design.

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