Middletown Junction, Ohio

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Location of Middletown Junction, Ohio OHMap-doton-Middletown Junction.png
Location of Middletown Junction, Ohio

Middletown Junction was the point in northwestern Hamilton Township, Warren County, Ohio, United States, on the eastern bank of the Little Miami River where the Middletown and Cincinnati Railroad joined with the Little Miami Railroad about midway between Kings Mills and South Lebanon. The Little Miami Scenic Trail runs through here today.

The Lebanon Countryside Trail was constructed to link the town of Lebanon, Ohio with the Little Miami Scenic Trail using the abandoned railroad bridge near the junction to cross the Little Miami. It opened in the fall of 2005.

Middletown Junction is where the Lebanon Countryside Trail begins at the Little Miami Scenic Trail today. The trail heads west and crosses the old railroad bridge across the Little Miami River. As of 2006, the satellite photos pre-date the recent trail construction, but the bridge is clearly visible. The railroad right-of-way is visually distinct from surrounding land and easy to trace on the satellite photos.

The original railroad junction had a triangular shape, to allow trains to switch to or from either direction on the Little Miami Railroad. However, only the northern branch has been paved for use as bike trail. The southern branch is being reclaimed by forest, but is still visible on satellite and aerial photos as a slight clearing.

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Warren County, Ohio County in Ohio, US

Warren County is a county located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 242,337. Its county seat is Lebanon. The county is one of Ohio’s most affluent, with the county median income the highest of Ohio’s 88 counties. The county was created on May 1, 1803 from Hamilton County; it is named for Dr. Joseph Warren, a hero of the Revolution who sent Paul Revere and the overlooked William Dawes on their famous rides and who died at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Warren County is part of the Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Little Miami River river in the United States of America

The Little Miami River is a Class I tributary of the Ohio River that flows 111 miles (179 km) through five counties in southwestern Ohio in the United States. The Little Miami joins the Ohio River east of Cincinnati. It forms parts of the borders between Hamilton and Clermont counties and between Hamilton and Warren counties. The Little Miami River is one of 156 American rivers designated by the U.S. Congress or the Secretary of the Interior as a National Wild and Scenic River and lends its name to the adjacent Little Miami Scenic Trail.

Little Miami Scenic Trail

The Little Miami Scenic Trail is the fourth longest paved trail in the United States, running 78.1 miles (125.7 km) through five southwestern counties in the state of Ohio. The multi-use rail trail sees heavy recreational use by hikers and bicyclists, as well as the occasional horseback rider. Over 700,000 people made use of the trail in 2014.

The Little Miami Railroad was a railway of southwestern Ohio, running from the eastern side of Cincinnati to Springfield, Ohio. By merging with the Columbus and Xenia Railroad in 1853, it created the first through-rail route from the important manufacturing city of Cincinnati to the state capital, Columbus. In this period, railroads were important for creating connections between the important waterways of the Great Lakes and the Ohio River, which were major transportation routes for products to other markets.

Miami and Erie Canal 19th-century manmade water route between Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio, U.S.

The Miami and Erie Canal was a 274-mile (441 km) canal that ran from Cincinnati to Toledo, Ohio, creating a water route between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Construction on the canal began in 1825 and was completed in 1845 at a cost to the state government of $8,062,680.07. At its peak, it included 19 aqueducts, three guard locks, 103 canal locks, multiple feeder canals, and a few man-made water reservoirs. The canal climbed 395 feet (120 m) above Lake Erie and 513 feet (156 m) above the Ohio River to reach a topographical peak called the Loramie Summit, which extended 19 miles (31 km) between New Bremen, Ohio to lock 1-S in Lockington, north of Piqua, Ohio. Boats up to 80 feet long were towed along the canal by mules, horses, or oxen walking on a prepared towpath along the bank, at a rate of four to five miles per hour.

Hagemans Crossing, Ohio

Hagemans Crossing is an unincorporated community in Union Township, Warren County, Ohio, United States. Located in the western part of the township, it is located on the old Cincinnati and Xenia Pike, now U.S. Route 42, about halfway between Lebanon and Mason. It was at the crossing of the Middletown and Cincinnati Railroad and the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway and was about two miles northwest of the M&C's eastern terminus at Middletown Junction.

Kings Mills, Ohio

Kings Mills is a census-designated place in the southwestern corner of Deerfield Township, Warren County, Ohio, United States, on the western shore of the Little Miami River. Located along I-71 twenty miles northeast of Cincinnati, it is less than a mile east of Mason, two miles southwest of South Lebanon, two and one-half miles north of Fosters, and two miles west of Hopkinsville.

Oregonia, Ohio

Oregonia is an unincorporated community in northwestern Washington Township, Warren County, Ohio, United States, on the east shore of the Little Miami River about five miles northeast of Lebanon and six miles south of Waynesville.

Fort Ancient (Lebanon, Ohio) United States historic place

Fort Ancient is a Native American earthworks complex located in Washington Township, Warren County, Ohio, along the eastern shore of the Little Miami River about seven miles (11 km) southeast of Lebanon on State Route 350. The site is the largest prehistoric hilltop enclosure in the United States with three and one-half miles (18,000 ft) of walls in a 100-acre (0.40 km2) complex. Built by the Hopewell culture, who lived in the area from the 200 BC to AD 400, the site is situated on a wooded bluff 270 feet (82 m) above the Little Miami. It is the namesake of a culture known as Fort Ancient who lived near the complex long after it was constructed.

The Middletown and Cincinnati Railroad is a historic railroad that operated in the southwest portion of the U.S. state of Ohio.

Louisville and Nashville Railroad Defunct American Class I railway

The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.

Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway Ohio railroad (1885–1926)

The Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern Railway (CL&N) was a local passenger and freight-carrying railroad in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio, connecting Cincinnati to Dayton via Lebanon. It was built in the late 19th century to give the town of Lebanon and Warren County better transportation facilities. The railroad was locally known as the "Highland Route", since it followed the ridge between the Little and Great Miami rivers, and was the only line not affected by floods such as the Great Dayton Flood of 1913.

Warren County Canal

The Warren County Canal was a branch of the Miami and Erie Canal in southwestern Ohio about 20 miles (32 km) in length that connected the Warren County seat of Lebanon to the main canal at Middletown in the mid-19th century. Lebanon was at the crossroads of two major roads, the highway from Cincinnati to Columbus and the road from Chillicothe to the College Township (Oxford), but Lebanon businessmen and civic leaders wanted better transportation facilities and successfully lobbied for their own canal, part of the canal fever of the first third of the 19th century. The Warren County Canal was never successful, operating less than a decade before the state abandoned it.

Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Railroad in the United States (1917-1956)

The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly called the Pan Handle Route, was a railroad that was part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. Its common name came from its main line, which began at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, crossed the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, and continued west to Bradford, Ohio, where it split into a northern line to Chicago and a southern one through Indianapolis, Indiana, to East St. Louis, Illinois.

Loveland Bike Trail

The Loveland Bike Trail is a rail trail in Ohio. It is a section of the Little Miami Scenic Trail within the Loveland, Ohio city limits in Clermont County. Like most of the longer trail, it was built along the right-of-way of the abandoned Little Miami Railroad, on the Little Miami River. Along with 15 other city parks, the trail corridor is maintained by City of Loveland Recreation Commission. The trail was opened in the 1980s and became part of the Little Miami Scenic Trail in 1984. More than 100,000 people accessed the Little Miami Scenic Trail via the Loveland trailhead in 2014.

Lebanon Countryside Trail

The Lebanon Countryside Trail is a rail trail in Ohio.

Mathers Mill, Ohio

Mathers Mill, alternately called Mathers Mills or Mather's Mills, is an unincorporated community in Warren County, Ohio, United States. It is approximately 5 miles east of Lebanon, and 2 miles south of Oregonia in eastern Turtlecreek Township. The area is served by the Oregonia post office, and Lebanon phone exchange and school district. Wilmington Road crosses the Little Miami River and intersects Corwin Road in this area. The bridge is known as the Mathers Mill bridge and the steep hill up out of the valley is sometimes referred to as Mathers Mill Hill.

Xenia Station

Xenia Station, located at 150 Miami Avenue in Xenia, Ohio, in the United States, is a replica of Xenia's 1880s brick railroad station.

The Cincinnati District is a railroad line owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway and operated by Cincinnati Eastern Railroad in the U.S. state of Ohio. The line runs from Cincinnati, Ohio southeast to Portsmouth, Ohio along a former Norfolk and Western Railway line. Its southeast end is at the Columbus District near Portsmouth, while its northwest end is in Mariemont, Ohio, where it meets the Indiana and Ohio Railway's Midland Subdivision and Norfolk Southern's Dayton District.

Branch Hill is an unincorporated community in Miami Township, Clermont County, Ohio, United States, on the banks of the Little Miami River near Loveland. The Little Miami Scenic Trail passes through Branch Hill.

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