Hamilton Street Bridge

J.R. I had no doubt you'd come out in the "pink".

I'm just never gonna live that down. I could write a doctoral thesis on bridge history and post 25,000 photos of bridges but the usual suspects will continue to say, "Isn't he the guy with the pink tinged camera?"

You're not the first one to point out the historical angle, either. Anthony Dillon observed that one of my pics of a footbridge in Grant Park, Milwaukee County, had an old time feel to it. He said, "Kinda looks like one of those old timey postcards. Pretty cool if you ask me."

Hey J.R., it would appear that you're not the first to have the pink tinge camera problem!

You can now claim that your pink photos are historically accurate.

http://www.carrollcountymuseum.org/photo/item.php?in=107001

Here are a few samples of news items concerning this bridge from the Carroll County Comet newspaper's Looking Back sections below. Check out this link also to see the bridge before and even a few of the truck in the collapsed bridge in the last photo. http://www.carrollcountymuseum.org/photo/list.php?search=Ham...

Now the Articles...........

December 1995

The Delphi Preservation Society will meet in emergency session this week to consider paying $103,000 to cover a tedious, exacting dismantling of the Hamilton Street Bridge in Delphi. Such a dismantling will preserve the society’s dream, the future restoration of the whipple truss structure.

September 1995

The Hamilton Street Bridge will be disassembled piece by piece and stored for future restoration. County commissioners authorized removal of the collapsed structure at the urging of the Department of Natural Resources, who saw the blockage as a safety threat to the community.

October 1995

PSI Energy will pay Carroll County $500,000 in settlement of a claim for damages over the collapse of the Hamilton Street Bridge.

January 1996

The Army Corps of Engineers told the Indiana Department of Natural Resources last week, that the collapsed Hamilton Street Bridge should be removed from Deer Creek prior to potentially threatening late winter high water creek levels.

Late January 1996

Carroll County Prosecutor Rob Ives has filed charges against Thomas Higbee, driver of the PSI utility truck that caused the collapse of the south end of the Hamilton Street Bridge in Delphi on July 30, 1995.

February 1996

A construction crew began removing the Hamilton Street Bridge over Deer Creek today. The bridge was severely damaged when a 10-ton PSI truck attempted an illegal crossing last summer.

May 1996

The Carroll County Commissioners' planned replacement of the Hamilton Street Bridge over Deer Creek in Delphi was officially approved by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources last week.

Collapsing a bridge wiht an overweight vehicle should be a crime, punishable by a large fine. It's basically destruction of public property. Nobody should ever go to jail for such things, but the court should order a state garnishment of the income of the truck driver, for the rest of thier lives, if need be.... or until the cost of the new bridge has been reimbursed.

This is the first I had heard about "drag racing" PSI trucks. I know the driver of the ill-fated truck was fired, but it sounds like at least one more should have been. Also had not heard that the bridge is in storage. Do you know where it is at?

The bridge was actually destroyed by a Public Service Indiana Electric Utility truck and it's weight caused the bridge to fall within maybe 10 feet of the creek below. The truck was stuck in there for some time before they removed it piece by piece and not soon after dismantled the bridge and stored it for possible future restoration. I went and viewed the bridge only days after it happened and was saddened by the sight of this great bridge mostly collapsed and the lowly truck resting at an angle almost in the middle with the Deer Creek current rushing just below. Department of Natural Resources people forced the removal immediately sighting concerns of any possible flooding waters causing additional problems if it was to occur. Sad thing is this was started by different crews sitting in two PSI trucks out at the Carroll County and Tippecanoe County line on SR 25 adjacent to the old factory that decided to race into Delphi that day. One took SR 25, the other unfortunately took the County Road the runs beside the Norfolk Southern(ex Wabash Railroad)tracks into town which leads to the Hamilton Street Bridge. I wonder how long it took the other crew to realize something was wrong when their fellow workers never showed up. Current Cement structure at this location in no way compares to the beauty of the old truss bridge.

This bridge was actually totally destroyed by an overloaded truck. It had such elagant portals and huge historical significance and was such a tragedy to lose. Anyone who operates any type of vehicle for work or a living should know the weight and obey posted weight limits on bridges! For crying out loud the US 421 bridge was just a block away!