INDIANA BRIDGE QUEST
This series of geocaches will take you on
a tour of Indiana's vanishing Historic Bridges--Covered, Iron, and
Railroad. Iron bridges are being demolished at a furious rate. For
example, in Huntington County in 1987, there were 14 iron bridges;
by 1999 the number had fallen to 8. Now it is 3. Similar, or worse
statistics for some surrounding counties, 1987 vs.
1999:
Allen: 31 -- 8
LaGrange: 10 -- 1
DeKalb: 9 --4
And these numbers are now five years out
of date.
Between 1870 and 1900 and on into the
twentieth century bridges began to be made of metal instead of
wood. They were constructed of wrought iron (later steel) in bridge
foundaries and transported to sites in pieces for final assembly.
Most of Indiana's earliest bridges were fabricated in Ohio and
Pennsylvania. By the 1880's Indiana bridge companies were formed.
The ungainly skeletal frames of Iron Bridges soon dominated
American roads and have become, for some of us, a beloved and
valuable part of the cultural landscape. So, come with us to see
them before they disappear forever!
EIGHT MILE CREEK AT HAMILTON
ROAD
I don't know if these
old bridges have names or not, I'm sure they must have numbers, but
all this is unknown to me. I'm calling this one the EIGHT MILE
CREEK Bridge. It is a single span, 8-ton Pratt Through Truss
crossing the Eight Mile Creek in Jackson Township, Huntington
County. Bridge appears to be Smack-dab (That's a highly technical
Surveyor's term) right on the County Line, tho. As noted on the
signs, it was built by the Smith Bridge Co. in Toledo, Ohio in
1883. Altho not marked as "One Lane", it is, unless everybody is
driving VW beetles...Hey, notice that ornamental dealie on the
right hand chord in the picture? Suppose there was one of the left
hand side and it's gone??!!
/Travel Tip: If you
launch your canoe here, you can float down to the Little Wabash
River at Roanoke Station, then down the Little Wabash to the Wabash
at Huntington, thence to the Ohio, thence to the Mississippi,
thence to New Orleans!
You do NOT have to
stand on the road bed to search for or retrieve the cache
container. Park with care. The container is a plastic peanut butter
jar. HINT IS A SPOILER. God Bless our Troops fighting overseas to
free the world from Tyranny. Do you have a yellow ribbon
around your tree?
DON'T BE
FOOLED BY IMITATIONS!!None genuine without SixDogTeam seal. 35mm
photographs taken by Lead Dog, copyright 2005 by RikSu Outfitters
unless otherwise noted. (Photos taken with 1970 Mamiya-Sekor 500DTL
SLR) We are the SixDogTeam and we approve of this
cache.
HINT IS A SPOILER...