Why Ohio Valley Shipbuilding Dream Couldn’t Stay Afloat
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Not every economic-development program works out. On a late April morning in 1801, most of Cincinnati’s thousand citizens lined the banks of the Ohio River, eager to watch one of the wonders of the age. A great new sailing ship, St. Clair, was passing downriver from Marietta for its maiden voyage on the high seas.
But something was terribly wrong: Those spectators were 600 miles from the closest salt-water port.