Portland Mills Covered Bridge 14-61-21
Description
Originally built over Big Raccoon Creek at the village of Portland Mills, this bridge was scheduled for demolition in 1961 with the formation of Cecil M. Harden Lake. The bridge was spared that fate when it was decided to move it to the site of the Dooley Station Covered Bridge that had been destroyed by arson the previous year. Unfortunately the secluded location and a lack of maintenance contributed to the bridge falling into disrepair. After being closed to traffic and surviving an arson attempt of it's own plans were made to restore the bridge. Although one of the portals collapsed, the truss members remained intact and the bridge was restored in 1996.Facts
- Overview
- Covered bridge over Little Raccoon Creek on CR650N
- Location
- Parke County, Indiana
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built 1856, relocated in 1961, closed to traffic in 1982, restored and reopened in 1996
- Builder
- - Henry Wolf
- Design
- Covered Burr arch-truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 118.8 ft.
Total length: 144.4 ft.
Deck width: 13.8 ft.
- Recognition
- Posted to the National Register of Historic Places
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +39.86076, -87.08916 (decimal degrees)
39°51'39" N, 87°05'21" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/492373/4412307 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Bellmore
- Inventory numbers
- INNBI 6100112 (Indiana bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
WGCB 14-61-21 (World Guide to Covered Bridges number)
NRHP 78000408 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 16821 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 05/2014)
- Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Appraisal: Functionally obsolete
Sufficiency rating: 57.7 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2014)
- 127
Update Log
- June 14, 2017: New photos from Tom Phelan
- February 4, 2015: Updated by Brent Tindall: Fixed typo in description, lake name
- August 4, 2012: Merged old and new listings
- August 13, 2011: Updated by Jacob P. Bernard: Changed info as someone thought this bridge was renovated when it really collapsed and a replica was built
- February 8, 2011: Updated by Anthony Dillon: Changed status as this is the original bridge and not a replica at the new location.
- February 7, 2011: Added by Jacob P. Bernard
- May 19, 2010: New photo from Bill Eichelberger
- January 7, 2009: New photos from Sean Flynn
- November 13, 2006: Posted photos from Tom Hall
Sources
- Tom Hall - thomas [dot] hall [at] ffni [dot] com
- Sean Flynn
- Bill Eichelberger
- Jacob P. Bernard
- Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
- Wikipedia
- Brent Tindall - bizzat219 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Tom Phelan - thomasp335 [at] aol [dot] com
Comments
Unfortunately, there was some confusion and misleading statements made about this bridge back then. That picture looks worse than it really was, as just the portal and overhang collapsed and the truss remained intact. The span not collapsing was a testament to how well it was built back in 1856. They only replaced what timbers they absolutely had to and strengthened some of the others, but I can assure you my friend it is mostly original.
Huh, that's odd, because everyone else says that it collapsed and a replica was built. I'm really comfused.
Yes......the portal on that end did collapse....but the bridge did not. I was just revising my statement when you posted this.
But......however, the bridge is not a replica and features most of the original timbers. I saw it as it was being rebuilt.
The bridge DID partially collapse and the rest of the timbers were used in the replica that was built.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Portlandm...
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/in/parke/portland-mills/
Funny though....that picture was made into a post card that was sold to help raise the money to restore it! I have one of them somewhere.