Facts
- Overview
- Through truss bridge over Mississinewa River on CR 850 North
- Location
- Delaware County, Indiana
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built 1902; rehabilitated 1985
- Design
- Through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 180.1 ft.
Total length: 183.0 ft.
Deck width: 15.7 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 17.0 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +40.31278, -85.30639 (decimal degrees)
40°18'46" N, 85°18'23" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Inventory numbers
- INNBI 1800036 (Indiana bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 16068 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 03/2005)
- Deck condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Serious (3 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 17.5 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2003)
- 116
Comments
Delaware County needs to have an Iron Bridge festival touting these wonderful spans and the hometown company that built them. My home (New Castle) had 3 different companies that erected iron bridges, but they tore them all down years ago. Now we are searching to find one to move back!
More pics of the Peterson Ford Bridge.......with a different filter.
P.S......Keep up the good work Fred!
The Peterson Ford Bridge is what the Indiana Bridge Company referred to as it's "high triangular truss". Two of these bridges survive, this one and a slightly smaller one in Preble County,OH. These seem to be similar to the Pegram truss bridges in Kansas. This bridge was built in 1902 and seems to face an uncertain future. It has been closed several times in the past few years, but as the most unique of Delaware County's remaining bridges, it needs to be preserved. It is also locally known as the Granville Bridge.
This through truss bridge, of the few which still exist in all of Delaware County, was closed the last time I (among others out there) checked. If there were any indications that it would subject to closing or replacement, it would boil down to the weight limit reduction from 8 tons a few years back to just 3 - & that's not a good sign for any bridge to have the tonnage reduced that drastically. The best thing Delaware County's Highway Department could do at this juncture is find a means by which this bridge could be preserved & a viable replacement for it in the process.