Indiana usually ranks fourth in lists of states with the most covered bridges and we have fewer than a hundred -- working on one fewer still, after a tractor-trailer driver decided to try one on for size up in DeKalb county last month. (Spencerville Covered Bridge, clearance very clearly posted.)
Repair it? And wait for the next modern-highway-sized load to come along? Nope; looks like it's going to moved and become a pedestrian bridge, one more piece of history off the job and put under glass. Beats losing it alogether -- but not by much.
A lot of history plain sucks. Some parts didn't. We should refrain from tossing the good parts out with the bad.
(Post title takes some poetic license: they did build a new one a few years ago, a nice Burr Arch, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. But it's more of a functional showpiece.)
Idiot driver.
ReplyDeleteOne of our three covered bridges has been moved that way, only it isn't even part of a trail, just shifted off the road alignment. It always looks weird to me, sort of floating there, since it is perfectly clear that the modern and historic alignments are a hundred feet away.
on the other hand it makes casually studying its structure much easier!
Well, if he was dragging the standard trailer, he was good for anything over 13ft6inches....close but no cigar..
ReplyDeleteA dump truck took out a covered bridge near our farm when I lived in Ohio. I like to think it was a conspiracy by the trucking companies to get rid of a low capacity bridge and replace it with a modern one, but it was probably just a spaced out truck driver.
ReplyDeleteBeg'n the Captain's pardon, but they did in fact just build a beautiful brandy spanking new wooden covered bridge on a main road in Pepperell MA. Opened this last spring in point of fact. I've altered my route to the flea market to include driving over (through?) the bridge.
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