By 1870 Shelby County Indiana had 154 miles of new gravel roads. It was time for the county to start building bridges at principle crossings of rivers. By 1880 there were 10 “substantial and elegant” iron bridges with additional bridges planned each year thereafter.
The bridge’s new home, seeing bicycles and pedestrian traffic only
The Clover Ford Bridge over Buck Creek was constructed in 1889 by the King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The cost of the bridge, Shelby County Bridge No. 13, was $3,384.50. The bridge served many years but was closed due to structural issues in 2011.
Beautiful and sound reconstruction
History board
Deemed historically important, it was refurbished in 2018 and moved to the Blue River Memorial Park in 2019. It is now part of the Blue River Trail that traverses Shelbyville. USI Consultants was the company that oversaw the relocation of the restored bridge, as well as designing the new Shelby County Bridge No. 219 which replaced the old Shelby County Bridge No. 13 over Buck Creek.
Very cool. I love old industrial design. Nice that they preserved it.
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They knew what they were doing back then. Beautiful work for sure. Thanks for commenting.
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Great history, they built beautiful structures in those days, nothing like today’s clone technology!
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So true. There might be some bridges in Michigan that were made by the King Iron Company.
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That’s great the could restore and repurpose a troubled bridge and place in over new waters. Getting bridges over the Rio Grande requires an act of God, therefore, crossing the river at rush hour can be a very slow process.
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Love seeing old bridges..great image.
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Thank you!
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Displaced Bridge (DB). 🙂
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LOL 😉
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Pingback: New home for an old bridge — Roadtirement – The Bridgehunter's Chronicles
Fascinating history
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Thank you, Derrick.
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It’s great it wasn’t left to rust away in some field, covered in brambles. 🙂
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There have been so many fine old bridges that either lost structural integrity or became obsolete. Thanks for sharing! 😉
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I’m glad they restored and repurposed the bridge. I hat to see those wonderful structures destroyed. We had an iron bridge over the creek near the house where I grew up. I hated it when it got torn down.
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So many fine old structures have gone. There was a gorgeous covered bridge in our town that I still miss.
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They “restored” a covered bridge not far from me, but they didn’t really. They basically built a new one. The old one was a functional one that was built by a family to keep the wood from rotting. When they “restored” it, they added windows and some other things. It’s not the same. Still glad it is there, but….
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Sometimes a not authentic restoration at least salvages the structure, but it usually would have been just as easy to do it correctly. Thanks for sharing.
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👍
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