Elm Street Bridge
Description
The abutments and piers of this bridge were constructed in 1852-3 to carry the former covered bridge at this location. The county bought the substructure to reuse for this bridge, and after some deliberation it was determined that using electric current to strategically "cut" the timbers at predetermined locations. It apparently worked, although now only the Western abutment remains.Facts
- Overview
- Lost Through truss bridge over Wabash River on Elm Street in Clinton
- Location
- Clinton, Vermillion County, Indiana, and Parke County, Indiana
- Status
- Replaced by new bridge in 1965
- History
- Built in 1899. One span collapsed in 1961. Replaced in 1965
- Builder
- - Lafayette Bridge Co. of Lafayette, Indiana
- Design
- Main span was a pin-connected Pennsylvania through truss,
bracketed with pinned Camelback trusses. - Approximate latitude, longitude
- +39.65703, -87.39529 (decimal degrees)
39°39'25" N, 87°23'43" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/466090/4389766 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Clinton
- Land survey
- T. 14 N., R. 9 W., Sec. 15
- Inventory number
- BH 47277 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- March 26, 2019: New photo from Mike Daffron
- February 4, 2019: Updated by Tony Dillon: Added stuff to tie this and the covered bridge together.
- January 21, 2019: New photos from Melissa Brand-Welch
- January 14, 2019: New photos from Melissa Brand-Welch
- December 10, 2010: Added by Jacob P. Bernard
Related Bridges
- Clinton Covered Bridge (Predecessor) - Substructure from this bridge was saved and reused on it's successor.
Sources
- Jacob P. Bernard
- Melissa Brand-Welch - melissabrandwelch [at] msn [dot] com
- Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
- Mike Daffron - daffmikron [at] gmail [dot] com
Comments
I've seen so many poorly written articles pertaining to historic bridges in the last few decades that nothing would surprise me Daniel!
I would think that the Bailey truss could have been installed quickly enough that a floating pontoon bridge wouldn't be necessary... So my guess is that it's error in terminology.
But without talking to someone that was there... Who can be sure.
To Clarify, I do understand they are different. When I said they used the words interchangeably I was referring to a newspaper article. Unfortunately I cannot find the exact article as I have went through dozens of articles about the bridge.
Interesting, I don't recall having heard a Bailey bridge referred to as a pontoon bridge before.
Is that common?
Daniel, it's my understanding they use Bailey and pontoon Interchangibly. From what I've read the bridge partially collapsed, had a Bailey bridge, was repaired, closed again and repaired again, then finally replaced. Start to finish the events take place in approximately 3.5 to 4 years.
Odd to see a significant editing mistake in the last paragraph of "River Bridge at Clinton Closed Again". "who appeared in City Court last" seems to have been substituted for what was supposed to be on that line.
I'm curious as to the exact timeline: it collapsed, they installed a Bailey Bridge, they found more damage, they replaced it... but there was also a pontoon bridge, was that just temporary while the permanent span was being erected?
I'm curious as to what the 150hp boiler was in use for. Were they still using portable steam equipment in 64?
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/in/vermillion/elm-street/
Ok...I think I found something. Originally, a Pontoon Bridge was planned but in reality a Bailey Bridge was erected. Hopefully this clears things up