Louisville History and Cartograph (1876) 

This is great.

I’ve seen this map before. Awesome video

The Indiana State Prison was just across the river from Louisville in Jeffersonville. Might account for the prisoners.

I recognize St. Martin of Tours church, went to kindergarten there. During the anti-immigrant riots against Irish and German Catholics in the 1850s, people hid in that church to escape being killed.

The numbers on the roofs are what you see on the chart below that names the various locations. I have a copy of that map and I know it well. What you call "the coast" is called a riverbank. What you call a "ship" are Mississippi Sternwheel steamboats and there are some "sidewheel steamboats" too. The Falls of the Ohio River is a 26.5 foot drop over a 2.5 mile distance of the world's largest exposed fossil beds of Silurian and Devonian fossils. There are three "chutes" for the Falls of the Ohio. Closest to the artist who painted this image is "Indian Chute," then the "middle chute," followed by the "Kentucky chute." These were named prior to the creation of the State of Indiana. The Fink Railroad Bridge was named in honor of the designer Albert Fink. A good deal of research about his is already online. That was the first railroad bridge connecting the north side of the Ohio River to the southside anywhere along the 981-miles of the Ohio River. His design allowed railroad navigation to eventually put steamboats out of existence. There are spans where the bridge is above the tracks and that would permit the steamboats access to the three chutes. Otherwise, the supports are underneath of the bridge and that is distinctly the "Fink Design." Over the technological transition from flatboats to steamboats (with the invention of the first steamboat by John Fitch in 1786), to the first steam trains in Lexington, KY (when there was less than 100-miles of track in the USA), then to train bridges being built over the rivers, but so low that it forced steamboats to install "knuckles" on the smokestacks so that the stacks could be folded either forward or backward to allow the steamboats to pass under low bridges. These knuckles also helped if a river was flooded and the boat was higher in the channel. During most of Louisville's history, anyone piloting a vessel through the Falls of the Ohio was required to hire a local pilot to navigate the Falls. Furthermore, prior and after the creation of the Locks & Dam, there were dike walls to direct water into deeper routes; wicket dams (temporarily raised during dry months to maintain a channel depth while creating sections that boats could still navigate through the chutes. In 1830, the Tarascon brothers wanted to build the Locks and Dam, but they soon learned how difficult that project would be attempting to bore through the limestone. The river bank section you called "the coast" was owned by one of my cousins, CSA Major General William Preston. The area was called "Preston Wharf." The image was created after Beargrass Creek (nicknamed "bloody creek" was moved in 1855 to its current location) because of the extensive smells from the stockyards along that creek and what was called "east Louisville" that we now think of as Billy Goat Hill, Butchertown, and other upstream areas. Constantly you call steamboats "ships" and that is not the proper terminology. The barges are moored together creating a "tow" and when combined with the sternwheeler steamboat, that is overall called a "towboat" because the steamboat would have additional "tow knees" that would allow the curved front of the vessel to mate up with the primary (rectangular) barge in front of the steamboat. Sternwheelers were created by Henry Miller Shreve (namesake of Shreveport, Louisiana) because he knew the problems associated with sidewheeler steamboats that would hit floating logs coming down the rivers (called "sawyers") and the debris would break off the "bucket planks" the flat portions of the paddlewheels that push the water. Shreve moved to Louisville because it was the gateway to the west long before St. Louis took on that title. When a Mississippi Stearnwheeler was operating, the paddlewheel in the rear of the vessel was protected by the haul. On a sidewheeler, debris hitting the bow (front) of the vessel would be directed to either side and create damage to the bucket planks. This entire image is vital because it shows the technological transition of many types of land and water navigation. PRISONERS: WRONG! That is the Indiana side of the Ohio River. There were requirements to off-load vessels and to hire on local pilots so that steamboats would be navigated through the falls or the lock chambers EMPTY. The persons hauling goods, wagons, carts, and packages were called "draymen" or similar terms. NO, THAT IS NOT A CHAIN GANG. You first should have studied the map, the index to the map, the culture, steamboating, trains, engineering, map reading, geography, and countless other topics before starting this video project. You are using incorrect terminology all throughout your video. The birds eye view maps can still be purchased at various museums in Louisville even in 2019. Writing a proper movie script for your video could have had you avoid using repeated terminology, making absolutely incorrect statements about the technology, the culture, the times, the people, and the places. Yes, we agree that the image is wonderful. What you are not realizing is the wide swath of technological advances the image is conveying. That map was used because the "mill race" the narrow canal that travels from the upstream (left side) to the lower right (downstream) Indiana bank (closest to the artist/viewing audience) is a channel to get water into the mill that used hydro-power (from the current going downstream) to turn machinery that was inside of that foreground building, a mill. There were thousands of other details I could convey to you from this map. If your company is attempting to sell images such as this map, it is VITAL that you study the information prior to using all sorts of incorrect terminology. There are other companies also selling the map. Electronic versions of the map are used/available. This image contrasts the changing times those folks experienced. Boats, canoes, log rafts, skiffs, sidewheeler steamboats, Mississippi stearnwheeler steamboats, horses, wagons, dry-carts, and trains were all in competition with one another to meet the needs of those people. There were folks doing "portage" to safely haul the tonnage that was removed from the steamboats to allow those vessels to remain higher or have "less draft" and to avoid crashing on the uneven falls. The insurance companies helped to set those rules. This map shows Corn Island which was used by another cousin of mine, General George Rogers Clark when he was sent on a secret mission to establish a fort on the island and to become the founder of the eventual City of Louisville. When the city was divided in October of 1773, into 30 different plots of land, tracks being from 1,000 to 6,000 acre tracts of land, the downtown Louisville mainly represents areas closest to the artist. The distant areas were already farms surveyed off at the same time, but the further lands were not marked off in 1773 due to Native American attacks near Carrollton, KY. Daniel Boone was sent in 1773 to warn the original "Fincastle Surveyers" to flee from Louisville to avoid being attacked. The map was created before the creation of the complete McAlpine Lock & Dam system which was required to create a consistent channel depth of at least 9-feet which was later required to be 13+ feet. This map says far more than I have time to write tonight. Please avoid making false statements that there are chain gangs in the map because that only conveys to the audience that you never studied the area or the topics of the 1850s. In performing Underwater Archaeological research since 1990, I have used the birds eye view maps because they do have countless details, great perspective, and it is impressive to see the quality of their efforts. If I did not already have this map in my collection, I would absolutely buy one from your company. Respectfully, Brennan Certified Underwater Archaeologist

You should do the Lexington., KY one!! If you haven’t already :)

I heard at one time Louisville was the second largest city behind now York.

Wow!

Most of these churches are still there. And the medical college I believe

Ship is "flat and shipping goods"... it is a barge.

haha looeevil