The area's first public hospital, Louisville Marine Hospital, is completed. Its amphitheater is the first such lecture room west of the Alleghenies. The Louisville and Portland Canal opens, providing three locks to move boats through the Falls of the Ohio. The Louisville Gas Company is incorporated, and by the next year, Louisville is the first city in the Northwest Territory to light its streets with gas. The University of Louisville is chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly and establishes a law school.
Railroad is formed.
A bustling transportation and manufacturing center, Louisville becomes the nation's 10th-largest city. Aristides wins the first running of the Kentucky Derby. Louisville's first skyscraper, the Columbia Building, is built. The first electric street cars appear in Louisville. By 1901, electric street cars connect outlying neighborhoods with the downtown business center.