I did a little traveling via Google maps and discovered an Old Saw Mill Road above those cliffs.

Could they have been used for work crew temporary housing when there was a load of logs to be wrangled?

For those who wish to return to the days of yore just check the distance you would have had to travel on a sleety February night to get to the privy.

This one goes in the wallpaper file for sure. Thanks Dave!

Is this the bridge Vern dropped his comb off?

Built in 128 days! The stone towers were originally intended for Roebling's never-completed suspension bridge. The towers were taken down in 1929 to allow for double tracks.

More photos and info at BridgeHunter: [Link 1], [Link 2].

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Baltimore Sun, April 24, 1877.

An Excursion on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad.

Testing the Great Bridge.

On Friday last a delegation of Cincinnatians, representing largely the wealth and business interests of the city, made a tour of inspection of the Cincinnati Southern Railway to the Kentucky river. The road was found to be in excellent condition. The track is heavily ballasted with broken stone to the depth of fifteen inches, the ties are laid close, and the splendid steel rails, of which the whole line is to be laid, are well put down. …

The bridge was subjected to the severest tests possible, which it stood admirably, the deflection of the spans, with a weight upon them of 1,082,000 pounds, ranging from three inches down to three-quarters of an inch. This bridge is believed to be the highest railroad bridge in the world, standing as it does 275 feet above the river. Its trestles, 87 feet high, rest upon iron piers 175 feet in height, which in turn stand upon huge stone abutments 66 feet and high and 130 by 17 feet. The three spans are 375 feet each in length, though the middle section really reaches past the pier a considerable distance on each side, receiving the other sections in telescopic form. The cost is $404,000, the builders the Baltimore Bridge Company. The work was begun October 16 and ended February 20. The bridge is known as the Whipple truss double intersection girder, or continuous cantilivers. The whole structure is wrought iron. …

Years ago on a steam train excursion that crossed High Bridge, I was told by a docent that High Bridge was widened to accommodate two tracks. He told me that that rail traffic used a temporary upper deck while the lower deck was under reconstruction!

I've wondered if I misunderstood. If it is true, I wish I could see pictures of that!

To answer Vinny's question further: "A" bridge is still there, but not "the" bridge in the 1907 photo. The structure has been rebuilt; the stone towers are gone and the framework and supports are far heavier than before.

If you move around in the Bing Bird's eye view that rvdroz provided in the stairs photo, you can see the differences.

I realize we can't see the whole communtity, however, what a strange place to build houses. You have to get off the train and climb down those long flights of stairs, then when the river floods you have to run back up the stairs. Also, you have the critters near the water like mosquitos, snakes, rodents and belligerent loggers. A wonderful railroad site but I'd still be on that first train out of town.

[The stairs were for the use of visitors to the park and resort at the top of the cliff, not access to the riverside houses.]

It's still there. Courtesy Bing 3D. And another thing: I just can't get over the beauty of this photo!

Is this bridge still there? I tried googling it but I'm getting a bunch of other bridges instead.

[Yes.]

4 houses with river view, dry almost 8 months per year, bring rubber boots and a canoe, also included a large supply of logs donated by high water for that new barn.

I'm glad Buster Keaton didn't see this photo.

Or rather, cabins.

I wonder who lived there and what they lived on. Those patches look way too small to be more than supplemental sustenance.

And between the bank and the foot of the escarpment it looks like every time there is high water it would be a wash-out. Thanks, I'll take the high ground and the long way around.

Do you think those houses ever got flooded out??!!