As you sit along Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River, you might spot a couple of kayakers paddling past—just as a massive freighter silently rounds the bend. Above, one of the city’s many movable bridges lifts to make way for the ship, while bikers, joggers, and visitors wind through pathways carved between river and rail. This view is more than a snapshot. It’s a living cross-section of time, revealing how infrastructure investments along the riverfront have shaped—and continue to reshape—this city.
The Cuyahoga—from the Mohawk word Cayagaga, meaning “crooked river”—has long been a trading route linking the Great Lakes to inland communities. Years before it housed steel mills and freight lines, the river served as a vital waterway for Native communities and early settlers alike. By the 19th and 20th centuries, the riverfront became Cleveland’s industrial engine. Thousands of ships hauled iron ore, coal, and manufactured goods along its winding path—supported by a complex web of bridges, docks, and rail spurs.
But industry had a cost. By the mid-1900s, the river had become so polluted that it caught fire—famously in 1969. That blaze helped ignite the national environmental movement, spurring the creation of the Clean Water Act and the EPA.
Today, the Cuyahoga reflects both its industrial legacy and its environmental rebirth:
Freighters still arrive daily, supported by dredged shipping channels and reinforced steel bulkheads
Cleveland Metroparks has invested in miles of bike paths, promenades, and greenway trails
Boathouses now line the riverfront, offering direct kayak access to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Portions of the river have been renaturalized, restoring habitats and improving public access
From commerce and industry to recreation and entertainment, the Cuyahoga Riverfront shows how these uses are becoming better integrated in a way that pays tribute to the city’s past and leading the way to Cleveland’s future. Two such projects highlight just this: Irishtown Bend and the Cuyahoga Riverfront Development
On the river’s western bank, Irishtown Bend stretches between Ohio City and the water’s edge. In the mid-1800s, it was home to Irish immigrants living in hillside shanties—earning the area its name. As Cleveland industrialized, the slope remained neglected. Over time, it became dangerously unstable, posing landslide risks that threatened trails, rail lines, and public safety.
Now, thanks to a $100M+ partnership led by Cleveland Metroparks, the Port of Cleveland, and civic organizations, Irishtown Bend is being transformed into a 26-acre public park. This is about more than greenspace—it’s about stabilizing the slope, protecting infrastructure, and returning a critical piece of the riverfront to public use.
Just across the river bend, Tower City sits atop a historic railyard. Opened in 1930 as the Cleveland Union Terminal, it was a pioneering multimodal hub: part train station, part office tower, part civic landmark. While most rail lines have since disappeared, the site now serves as a hub for RTA transit, connecting the city through light rail and buses.
And today, Bedrock is leading a transformation of the site into a mixed-use civic gateway rooted in public space, mobility, and equity. Plans call for a revitalized riverfront district, leveraging RTA’s transit service to enable a true transit-oriented development. In 2023, work began on a new bulkhead to protect the shoreline and prepare the land for future development—laying the foundation for what's to come.
Here along the Cuyahoga, you can see centuries of infrastructure layered in one place. From Native trade routes to iron bridges, from coal docks to bike paths, the riverfront tells Cleveland’s past—and its future.
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