Current Time in Cincinnati, United States

Cincinnati sits on the northern bank of the Ohio River in the south-west corner of the state of Ohio, directly opposite Kentucky. Unusually for a Midwestern city, it is built on hills, with steep wooded slopes rising from the riverfront to neighbourhoods that look out over the water and the bridges. The river gave the city its purpose, and the surrounding basin, ringed by ridges, gives it an intimate, almost European feel.

About three hundred and ten thousand people live within the city limits and more than two million in the metropolitan area, which extends into Kentucky and Indiana. Cincinnati is a corporate centre of real weight, headquarters of Procter and Gamble, Kroger and Fifth Third Bank among others, with strong aerospace, chemical and consumer goods sectors.

Founded in 1788 and named after a society of Revolutionary War officers, the settlement grew rapidly once steamboats began working the Ohio. By the 1840s it was one of the largest cities in the United States and the centre of the American pork industry, which earned it the nickname Porkopolis. Enormous German immigration reshaped it, filling the district north of the canal, still called Over-the-Rhine, with breweries, churches and singing societies. Its position on the border between free and slave states made it a crucial node of the Underground Railroad and a city of intense debate over slavery. Industrial decline in the twentieth century emptied parts of the centre, but recent decades have brought a striking revival, particularly in Over-the-Rhine, which now holds one of the largest collections of Italianate architecture in the country.

The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge of 1866, a graceful precursor to the Brooklyn Bridge by the same engineer, links the city to Kentucky and is a beloved landmark. Union Terminal, a magnificent art deco railway station, houses the Cincinnati Museum Center with its natural history, history and children's museums. The Cincinnati Art Museum and the Taft Museum are free or inexpensive, the Contemporary Arts Center occupies a striking building by Zaha Hadid, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center stands on the riverfront. The Cincinnati Zoo, the second oldest in the country, is internationally known for its conservation work.

Culturally the city punches far above its weight. Its symphony orchestra and opera are among the oldest in the United States, Music Hall is a Victorian masterpiece, and the May Festival is the country's longest-running choral festival. Oktoberfest Zinzinnati is the largest such celebration outside Germany. The Reds, founded in 1869 as the first fully professional baseball team, and the Bengals in football command devoted followings, and the local chili, a spiced sauce served over spaghetti and buried in cheese, is a genuine culinary curiosity.

Interstate highways converge here, a modern streetcar loop serves the centre, and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport lies across the river. The University of Cincinnati, where cooperative education was invented in 1906, and Xavier University serve tens of thousands of students.

Cincinnati offers architecture, riverfront scenery and cultural depth that consistently surprise first-time visitors.