River, northeastern Ohio, U.S. It flows past Akron , where it drops into a deep valley and turns north, emptying into Lake Erie at Cleveland .
It is navigable for lake freighters for only about 5 mi (8 km) of its total length of about 80 mi (130 km). It was at one time so severely polluted that it caught fire; by the late 1970s, antipollution measures had substantially improved its condition. The Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area covers about 32,000 acres (12,950 hectares) of river valley between Akron and Cleveland.