Cuyahoga River Research Paper

The Cuyahoga River received its name from the Iroquois meaning “crooked water” or “place of the jawbone.”(Britannica). Running through about 80 miles of land the Cuyahoga River became a centre of commercial transportation (Britannica). Cleveland, Ohio which is located on the Cuyahoga River was one of America's major industrial centers (Website). Until about the mid 20th century when the lower portion of the river that ran through Cleveland, Ohio became polluted. From decades of uncontrolled dumping of industrial hazardous waste which turned the water toxic(Book) and some of the waste also came from a lack of sewer systems (Website). To make this water even more dangerous the hazardous waste was flammable because it was a mixture of oil and chemicals(Book).

Although the fire wasn’t the first one to occur and only lasted a mere 30 minutes, which didn’t even allow from news reporters to get a report it set of a spark in people for a cleaner river(Book). The fire reached heights of about 5 stories tall and damaged two railroad bridges(Britannica)(Website). With further investigation it was determined that oil slick debris was trapped between two wooden trestles, which were located at Campbell Road hill located in Southeast Cleveland (Website). Damage for this fire was said to be around fifty thousand dollars, forty-five thousand of it was in the destruction of a bridge owned by Norfolk and Western Railway Company. The other five thousand was the Newburgh and South Shore Railway trestle (Website). The event of the Cuyahoga River can be head in the song “Burn On” by Randy Newman