Floodwater covered most of Louisville, Kentucky, in January 1937, and WDRB reported in a look back at the flood that there were not enough boats to rescue everyone downtown. The answer was a bridge built on empty whiskey barrels that floated about 1,800 feet from East Jefferson Street toward the drier ground of the Highlands.

Water Everywhere

The Ohio River crested at Louisville on January 27, 1937. The National Weather Service says 70 percent of the city was submerged and 175,000 residents were forced to flee. Other accounts put the flooded share nearer 60 percent.

Army Air Corps aerial photograph, dated January 25, 1937, of downtown Louisville, Kentucky, with the riverfront blocks and rail sheds under floodwater — Downtown Louisville under water, January 1937. National Archives.

A Bridge on Empty Barrels

On January 26, a floating bridge went up. One local timeline says work started at 9am and finished at 6pm, about nine hours. A WDRB retrospective says it took 23 hours. WFPL's account says only "less than a day," and that is the claim that fits both.

The bridge ran about 1,800 feet from the corner of Johnson and Jefferson streets to the foot of Baxter Avenue, and it floated on empty whiskey barrels. That length is the figure in most local accounts; we found no contemporary measurement.

At the far end, the bridge let thousands of refugees cross the floodwater into the Highlands and Crescent Hill.

Who Built It

The Filson Historical Society's finding aid for the papers of Louisville architect William Arrasmith says he led a team in the creation of his design for the pontoon bridge during the flood. Arrasmith is better known for his Art Deco Greyhound bus stations, and his photograph collection at the Filson holds two pictures of the bridge.

Other accounts are looser. A student newspaper says citizens built it, and a man in a steamboat forum recalled that his brother helped build the "whiskey-barrel" bridge.

Tens of Thousands Walked Out

Louisville author Rick Bell, quoted by WDRB, says about 75,000 people crossed the bridge to safety in four days. That is an estimate, and we found no contemporary count.

Another crowd figure comes from the neighborhood of Irish Hill, where the bridge landed along Baxter at Lexington Road. Over 20,000 people passed through Irish Hill on their way to the Highlands or Crescent Hill, and neighbors gave them food, water and temporary shelter.

A local timeline says that by January 30 a pontoon bridge at Beargrass Creek was being used for emergency traffic only. For a few days, whiskey barrels had been the road out of a flooded city.

Related Tags