The Beautiful Ohio River

The Beautiful Ohio River. . The Ohio River, called La Belle Riviere (the beautiful river) by the French, derives its name from an Iroquois word meaning “good river” or “large river.” The Ohio flows generally along a southwesterly 981-mile course from Pittsburgh, PA, to Cairo, IL, where it empties into the Mississippi River. It is the largest tributary of that river, the longest in North America., Fort Boreman was constructed during the Civil War on what was formerly called Mount Logan because the site commanded a stunning view of the river which was vital to riverboat transportation and critical to the war effort. Because of the bend in the river at Parkersburg, no other location in Mid-Ohio Valley provided such a wide-ranging view. Before the railroad bridge was built, from 1857-1860 cars of the Northwestern Virginia Railroad and the Marietta-Cincinnati Railroad had to be uncoupled, ferried across the river, and reassembled on the other side. From 1860 until the railroad bridge was completed in 1871, cargo was removed from the rail cars, barged across the river, and reloaded into railroad cars on the other side., Across from the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha Rivers lies historic Belpre, OH, the second oldest permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory. Settled in 1789 by members of the Ohio Company of Associates, the town was actually surveyed the year before as Belle Prarie, which is French for “beautiful meadow.” During the Indian Wars that followed, the earliest settlers lived in a blockhouse known as “Farmer’s Castle.”