Concrete History: Floodwalls on the Ohio River

Concrete floodwalls can be seen as the most dramatic device to draw a clear line between rivers on the one side and urban areas on the other. In other words, they seem to decisively separate nature and culture. While levees, no matter how big they are, have at least a semblance of “naturalness” and while storage reservoirs take care of the flood problem out of sight (and often out of mind) of the urban population, floodwalls are impressive and immediate technological structures that can hardly be overlooked. This contribution focuses on the history of floodwalls on the Ohio River as part of the long-term attempt to find a “happy mean” between the hazards and the opportunities that a river generates. It will look at the reasons why these concrete structures have been created, how they were perceived and discussed, and why some cities decided against the construction of floodwalls. Furthermore, it will analyse how the erection of these massive devices has impacted human and non-human life in various urban centres, and it will treat floodwalls as material items embedded into the local environment, items which disintegrate over time and need to be constantly maintained in order to avoid disaster, especially in times of accelerating climate change.