Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Cincinnati Skywalk
The Cincinnati Skywalk was a 1.3-mile network of elevated, mostly enclosed walkways in downtown Cincinnati, built in stages from 1971 and completed in 1997 for more than $16 million. The City approved and helped fund it with federal urban renewal money and relied on dozens of maintenance agreements with private property owners. From 2002 the City and developers removed it piece by piece to bring pedestrians back to street level, and the last prominent segment came down in 2020.
Governance
Who owns it, who runs it, what the rules are.
- Owner
- The City of Cincinnati approved the system and part-funded it with federal urban renewal money. It signed dozens of maintenance agreements with the private owners whose buildings the walkways crossed. Which bridges the City held title to is not confirmed in the sources reviewed.
- Operator
- No single operator. Upkeep and security were split under dozens of agreements between the City and private property owners, which made responsibility hard to determine.
- Public right
- No documented public right of passage was found. The system depended on agreements with private owners, and segments were removed when buildings were redeveloped or demolished.
- Who pays
- Construction was part-funded with federal urban renewal money. Maintenance was divided among dozens of private owners under agreements with the City. Jim Tarbell, a former city leader, told FOX19 in 2020 that it had been very expensive to maintain.
Legal instruments
- City Council approval and City-owner maintenance agreements ↗City Council approved the skywalk after federal urban renewal funding was secured. The City then signed dozens of maintenance agreements with private property owners. The texts of those agreements were not located.[01]
- Cincinnati 2002 Center City Plan ↗City downtown plan that judged the skywalk harmful to street-level activity and framed its gradual removal.[01]
Governing bodies
Open issues
- Whether any short connector, such as the bridge over Vine Street between the Westin and Carew Tower complexes, still stands after 2020 is not confirmed.
- Cincinnati is widely cited as the leading example of a US city deliberately dismantling its skywalk to revive street-level retail.
Timeline
- Cincinnati Director of Planning Herbert W. Stevens proposes elevated skywalks to separate pedestrians from downtown traffic.[01]
- After federal urban renewal funds are committed and City Council approves the project, the first segment opens between the Cincinnati Convention Center and Fountain Square.[01]
- The system is declared complete at 1.3 miles and a total cost of more than $16 million.[01]
- Cincinnati's 2002 Center City Plan argues that the skywalk draws pedestrians off the street and makes downtown appear abandoned. The segment linking Riverfront Stadium to the Atrium I and II buildings is removed during the Fort Washington Way reconfiguration.[01]
- The City removes the segment from the Fifth Third Center to Vine Street and a bridge over 5th Street as part of the Fountain Square redevelopment.[01]
- A bridge over 5th Street between Elm and Race streets is demolished after the office tower it served is torn down.[01]
- The City removes an open-air segment over Elm Street and Rusconi Place.[01]
- The bridge over Race Street between 5th and 6th streets is demolished for the new dunnhumby office building.[01]
- 3CDC removes the glass bridge over 5th Street linking Carew Tower to Fountain Place, the former Macy's, as part of its Fountain Place redevelopment.[02]
What it cost · who pays
- Total construction cost, 1971-1997 · 1997
- more than US$16 millionCumulative cost to completion. Nominal dollars across several decades.[01]
The story
The Cincinnati Skywalk was a network of elevated, mostly enclosed walkways that let pedestrians cross downtown Cincinnati above street traffic. The idea was introduced in 1957 by the city's Director of Planning, Herbert W. Stevens, and developed through the 1960s as part of urban renewal. Its aim was to make downtown easier to walk and shop in at a time when climate-controlled suburban malls were drawing shoppers away.
City Council approved the project once the federal government agreed to provide urban renewal funds. The first segment opened in 1971, linking the Cincinnati Convention Center with Fountain Square. More segments were added through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, connecting Carew Tower, the Westin hotel complex, the Fifth Third Center, Saks Fifth Avenue, the Mercantile Building and other buildings. The system was declared complete in 1997 at a length of 1.3 miles and a cost of more than $16 million.
Governance was dispersed. The City signed dozens of maintenance agreements with private property owners whose buildings the walkways crossed, which made it hard to establish who was responsible for repairs and security. No citywide hours rule or skywalk ordinance has been identified. In 2020 Jim Tarbell, a former Cincinnati city leader, told FOX19 the system had been very expensive to maintain, and another former mayor had called it ugly.
Within five years of completion, opinion had turned. The City's 2002 Center City Plan argued that the skywalk let pedestrians bypass the street, made downtown look abandoned and suppressed street-level commerce. Removal began in 2002 during the Fort Washington Way project and continued with the 2005 Fountain Square redevelopment. Bridges followed in 2008, 2012 and 2013 as connected buildings were demolished or replaced. In October 2020 the redevelopment group 3CDC removed the best-known bridge, over 5th Street between Carew Tower and Fountain Place, and Cincinnati became a standard case for planners weighing skywalk removal.
Questions people ask
Why did Cincinnati remove its skywalk?
When was the Cincinnati Skywalk built?
Is any of the Cincinnati Skywalk left?
How much did the Cincinnati Skywalk cost?
Sources
- Cincinnati Skywalk — Wikipedia (2026)
- Last portions of Cincinnati's Skywalk coming down — FOX19 NOW (2020)
- Skyway — Wikipedia (2026)
About this record
Confidence medium · reviewed 2026-10-19. This record rests mainly on the Wikipedia article, cross-checked against FOX19 for the 2020 removal. The session's web-search budget ran out before Cincinnati-specific searches could run, and the Cincinnati Enquirer, New York Times, Business Courier and Internet Archive could not be fetched. A human should verify against the primary sources Wikipedia cites. These are the Cincinnati Enquirer of June 1, 2003 ('Downtown skywalk falls into disfavor'), the New York Times of August 3, 2005 ('Rethinking Skyways and Tunnels'), the Cincinnati Business Courier of February 23, 2012, and the Enquirer of October 28, 2020. No skywalk hours policy, ordinance number or agreement text was found. Title to the bridges, city versus private, needs confirmation from city records. Wikipedia's photo caption describes a bridge over Vine Street between the Westin and Carew Tower complexes in the present tense, so check whether any segment survives. The quote about maintenance cost is attributed by FOX19 to former mayor Jim Tarbell; Tarbell served as vice mayor, so confirm the title.
Map geometry: 51 corridor features, © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), as of 2026-10-20. Levels come from OpenStreetMap tags and can be incomplete.
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© 2026 Open Civic Intelligence Ventures LLC. Quote with attribution and a link; terms.