Urban Rivers: Southeast

A new front door

Louisville is the hometown of Tori Murden, the first American and the first woman to complete a west-to-east solo crossing of the Atlantic in a rowboat. Tori completed her crossing in December 1999. Could her inspiration partly have been the Ohio River itself, which runs through her hometown? Or perhaps it was the heroic efforts of the citizens of Louisville to reclaim their waterfront. Louisville was one of those cities that had allowed their riverfront to become a vast tire dump. Then a decade ago the people of Louisville wanted to go back to the river. The river itself was cleaner, thanks to conservation efforts upstream. Through perseverance, a linear park was created along the river, which includes a 13-mile river walk. Folks come down by the water to stroll, ride a bike, or just watch the river flow by. In the words of a local resident, "The river is our new front door. It's the first place we show off to out-of-town visitors."