Rating:
4 votes

Feederdam Bridge

Clay County, Indiana
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Photos 

East end

Photo taken by Robert Stephenson in March 2009

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Map 

View Uglybridges.com report

Facts 

Overview
Closed through truss bridge over Eel River on Towpath Road
Location
Clay County, Indiana
Status
Closed to all traffic
History
Built 1894
Builder
- C.F. Hunt Co.
Design
Whipple through truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 200.1 ft.
Total length: 206.0 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 17.7 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on February 7, 2000
Also called
Towpath Road Bridge
Eel River Bridge
Clay County Bridge #208
Approximate latitude, longitude
+39.33583, -87.11361   (decimal degrees)
39°20'09" N, 87°06'49" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/490208/4354051 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Clay City
Inventory numbers
INNBI 1100175 (Indiana bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
NRHP 00000215 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 15919 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 08/2006)
Deck condition rating: Imminent Failure (1 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Imminent Failure (1 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 16.6 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 2006)
111

Categories 

19th Century (3,817)
Built 1894 (136)
Built during 1890s (1,555)
C.F. Hunt Co. (1)
Clay County, Indiana (39)
Closed (2,071)
Eel River (Northern Indiana) (31)
HAER documented (781)
Indiana (3,348)
NR-listed (2,353)
 Owned by county (16,483)
Pin-connected (1,519)
Span length 175-250 feet (1,482)
Structurally deficient (16,677)
Through truss (9,202)
Total length 175-250 feet (2,789)
Truss (23,562)
Whipple truss (154)
Wooden deck (5,397)
Wrought iron (225)

Update Log 

  • August 5, 2012: Updated by Clark Vance: Corrected name to match HAER and map
  • May 9, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added category "HAER documented"
  • May 24, 2009: New photos from Robert Stephenson
  • March 27, 2009: New photos from Robert Stephenson
  • March 26, 2009: Updated by Robert Stephenson: Alternate name
  • March 24, 2009: Updated by Robert Stephenson: NRHP, Name, Year built, GPS, Design
  • October 6, 2008: New photos from Robert Stephenson

Sources 

  • Robert Stephenson - seinfeld99 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • HAER IN-21 - Feederdam Bridge, State Route 59, spanning Eel River, Clay City vicinity, Clay County, IN
  • Clark Vance - cvance [at] dogmail [dot] com
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Comments 

Feeder Dam Bridge
Posted July 31, 2012, by Anna Rees (cutlelilscavenger [at] yahoo [dot] com)

Thank you, Clark! :)

Feeder Dam Bridge
Posted July 24, 2012, by Clark Vance (cvance [at] dogmail [dot] com)

I found the 1908 topo and the given name is the Feederdam (one word) Bridge.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/indiana/txu-pclmaps-topo-in-clay_city-1908.jpg

The railroad downstream shows as the Evansville and Indianapolis RR.

Feeder Dam Bridge
Posted July 24, 2012, by Anna Rees (cutlelilscavenger [at] yahoo [dot] com)

About 1/2 mile to a mile downstream from this bridge, there used to be a train tressle which was demolished in the 90s, but I remember walking across it as a kid. My dad used to shoot it with guns, too. LOL. I can't find any record of it on this site. You can still see the concrete from it in aerial photos of the river, but the deck of the tressle is gone. Does anyone know what this was called?

Feeder Dam Bridge
Posted May 10, 2012, by Robert Elder (robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com)

Either that or ADT now includes reports of ghosts on bridges...oh wait, that would push some abandoned truss bridges to ADT counts of over 1,000 per hour, especially between the hours of 10PM and 3AM...

Robert now nominates Anna for the comment of the week award...

Feeder Dam Bridge
Posted May 9, 2012, by Tony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com)

Amusing huh Anna?

I have seen ADT's on many long abandoned ones like this...not sure where they come from though. Just helps fuel my belief that the counts on active spans are not accurate and are likely pulled out of someones A#$...

Feeder Dam Bridge
Posted May 9, 2012, by Anna Rees (cutlelilscavenger [at] yahoo [dot] com)

Where did you get the figure for the average daily traffic of 111? LOL! Is this foot traffic? I spent many a summer in my childhood around that bridge and it's been closed all my life...I went fishing off the bridge about 12 years ago and even then there were holes in the deck where you could see the river. Four years ago the holes had increased in size...WHO is using this bridge? LOL!!!