These were the original beer caves!
When modernization rendered the elaborate labyrinth obsolete, there was no practical use for the tunnel system. It was buried and largely forgotten. As old streets were torn up and old buildings were torn down, the crushed brick and concrete pieces were brushed into the vent and drainage systems to fall into the idle caverns below.
Many decades later, like archaeologists excavating a lost city, these tunnels and caverns were slowly chiseled out and cleared. And then, tours took people into the depths to rediscover Cincinnati’s drunk history. Click here to read the rest of the story.