Historic bridges getting new life in Hamilton County
HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) – Indiana’s long history has produced some amazing architecture and Hamilton County officials are now able to preserve a small piece at the White River Campground in Cicero. Visitors can now walk through a unique piece of history.
Cindy Sweet says her grandfather Erskine Cook worked for the Indiana Bridge Company. He was the guy high up in the air helping put the bridge together.
“He would catch the rivets in tongs and placed them around a bolt or something somewhere along the connections on the trusses and then he would hammer them on and that’s what made them connections tight,” Sweet said.
Sweet says when she looks at these bridges at the White River Campground it transports her to a different time.
“I know even if he didn’t build these bridge, I know that he built some and that’s part of our heritage,” said Sweet.
Al Patterson is the director for the Hamilton County Parks and Rec Department says the project has been 15 years in the making.
The bridges will complete the upper Hamilton County trail system to Strawtown Kotowaee Park. Two of the bridges that will connect the trail are the Wayne County 229 bridge and Washington County 113 bridge. They are the two larger trusses. Both were built in the late 1800s when the country was just starting to invest in transportation.
“As soon as we started working with railroads and crossing rivers and connecting communities and cities and things the bridge that is bridge 229 was really the standard bridge,” said Patterson.
Back then Wayne County Bridge 229 was also known as a Pinned Pratt through truss. This type of bridge would have been seen all across the country.
After the Pinned Pratt came the triple-intersecting lattice truss. That’s the design of Bridge 113.
“It never really caught on it was fully functional but by the time they brought it on they started to come in with new technologies so this was the only bridge of its kind of this design in the state of Indiana,” said Patterson.
When Patterson saw the bridge he knew he had to save it.
“Sure we could go build a bridge and it may have been cheaper but at the same time we get to preserve a part of history and bring these old bridges back to life and let everybody enjoy them, said Patterson.
Sweet will walk across and think of her grandfather
“I think it’s great they are repurposing them instead of letting them rust away and letting their history go away with them, it’s great to preserve them somehow, said Sweet.
Both projects were funded through federal highway grants specifically allocated to Indiana, specifically for historic projects like this one.
The bridges will be open to the public in October. They will connect up the Northern Hamilton County Nature Trail.