A Glimpse of the Cincinnati Wharf in 1941
This dandy image was taken from the stern of the excursion steamer ISLAND QUEEN in 1941. Alongside the Greene Line wharfboat are the steamers GORDON C. GREENE, CHRIS GREENE and the CARY-BIRD. The U.S. Str. GREENBRIER was decommissioned in 1947 and went to Houston to become a landing boat on the Intracoastal Waterway.
An ironic coincidence of this photo is that the GORDON, as the restaurant boat RIVER QUEEN, sank on December 2, 1967 at St. Louis, the Greene Line wharfboat sank near old Fernbank Dam on October 26, 1968 and the CHRIS GREENE, being used as a boat harbor at Dayton, Kentucky, burned on July 22, 1968. These three vessels met their demise within 11 months of each other -- and the C&O Bridge, down in the distance (beyond the Suspension Bridge) was condemned and closed to traffic at midnight on November 9, 1968.
The Str. CARY-BIRD was decomissioned in 1942 and later became a wharfboat and restaurant at Jeffersonville for the excursion sternwheeler BONNIE BELLE. Later moved to Madison, I think the CARY-BIRD is now high and dry along the Kentucky River. Who knows her current status?
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