The Cuyahoga River cuts through the gorge between Akron and Cuyahoga Falls, creating one of the area’s most distinctive landscapes. This postcard captures the river and the bridge crossing the gorge, showing a place where the natural landscape and the growing transportation network came together.
This early 20th-century view of the Cuyahoga River gorge shows just how heavily industry had become woven into the landscape of Cuyahoga Falls. The river wasn’t just a scenic feature in the area, it was a source of power. Mills and factories grew along its banks to take advantage of the moving water.
Carved from the earth nearly 12,000 years ago, the Gorge is one of the area’s greatest natural wonders. The area is also filled with amazing folklore. On May 21, 1758, at the age of ten, Campbell was abducted from a place in or near the town of Penn’s Creek, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Her captors were a band…
In the early 1900s, the Northern Ohio Traction & Light Company built a power plant and concrete dam on the Cuyahoga River in present day Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Although the power plant is long gone, the dam remains and its waters continue hide Big Falls.
The Northern Ohio Traction & Light Co. powerhouse (also known as the Gorge Power Station) and trolley bridge, Cuyahoga Falls/Akron, Ohio.