New Harmony Bridge
Videos
Back to New Harmony Bridge Peregrine Media | |
New Harmony Bridge Peregrine Media | |
Forgotten Daniel Wilson | |
New Harmony Bridge Toll Booth Vandalized 14 News | |
In Harmony's Way: The battle to save a bridge A documentary about the history of the New Harmony Bridge. Dr. David Black |
Description
A private company, the "Big Wabash Bridge Company of Carmi, Illinois" built the bridge as a toll bridge in 1928. In 1941 Congress established a three member panel known as the White County Bridge Commission to operate the bridge. The bridge was built for $535,796 but when it was taken over it had a debt of $945,000 according to a 1955 story from the Indianapolis News. There was a motion to clear the bridge of debt in July 1955 but tolls would still be collected to pay for $125,900 in repair costs. In 1951 a new toll booth was constructed in its current location. The bridge was closed from September 2007 to April 2008. The bridge closed permanently on May 21 2012.Facts
- Overview
- Four-span through truss toll bridge over Wabash River on IL 14 at New Harmony, Indiana
- Location
- New Harmony, Posey County, Indiana, and White County, Illinois
- Status
- Closed to traffic May 21, 2012
- History
- Built 1930, Ownership transferred to White County Bridge Commision in 1941.
- Builders
- - Big Wabash Bridge Co. of Carmi, Illinois (Toll Bridge Co.)
- Nashville Bridge Co. of Nashville, Tennessee
- Design
- Riveted, Parker through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 299.8 ft.
Total length: 2,578.4 ft. (0.5 mi.)
Deck width: 20.0 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 15.6 ft.
- Recognition
- Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on October 3, 2007
- Also called
- Harmony Way Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +38.13090, -87.94155 (decimal degrees)
38°07'51" N, 87°56'30" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/417481/4220757 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- New Harmony
- Average daily traffic (as of 2003)
- 1,065
- Inventory numbers
- INNBI 023305 (Indiana bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
NRHP 07001030 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 16884 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of April 2014)
- Overall condition: Poor
Superstructure condition rating: Serious (3 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Critical (2 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 2 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- October 31, 2020: New photos from Carl Crasher
- September 14, 2019: New photos from Melissa Brand-Welch
- June 13, 2019: New photos from Melissa Brand-Welch
- March 26, 2019: New photos from Mike Daffron
- January 15, 2019: New photo from Melissa Brand-Welch
- October 20, 2018: New photo from Melissa Brand-Welch
- October 15, 2018: New video from Melissa Brand-Welch
- October 12, 2018: New photos from Melissa Brand-Welch
- October 10, 2018: New photo from Melissa Brand-Welch
- October 9, 2018: New video from Melissa Brand-Welch
- August 7, 2017: New photos from Jack Schmidt
- March 25, 2017: New photos from Mike Daffron
- July 10, 2014: New photo from Andrew Raker
- March 9, 2013: Updated by Ed Hollowell: Change first owner/builder to Big Wabash Bridge Company of Carmi, Illinois
- May 22, 2012: Updated by Kim Harvey: Bridge closed by IDOT on May 21 at 3 PM following results of a bridge inpsection
- October 12, 2011: Photo imported by Ed Hollowell
- October 7, 2010: New photo from James Baughn
- August 17, 2010: Updated by Ed Hollowell: Added info from 1955 Indianapolis News article.
- March 9, 2010: Updated by Robert Stephenson: Street view
- March 7, 2010: Updated by Robert Stephenson: Added approach design
- October 18, 2009: New photos from Kim Harvey
- March 26, 2009: Updated by Robert Stephenson: Alternate Name, Builder and NRHP info
- October 25, 2008: Updated by James McCray
- May 20, 2008: Updated by Max Johnson
- September 6, 2006: Posted photos from Wayne Grodkiewicz
Sources
- Wayne Grodkiewicz - WGrodkiewi [at] aol [dot] com
- James McCray - jamesinslocomb [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Robert Stephenson - seinfeld99 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Kim Harvey
- Ed Hollowell - erhollowell [at] aol [dot] com
- James Baughn - webmaster [at] bridgehunter [dot] com
- Andrew Raker
- Mike Daffron - daffmikron [at] gmail [dot] com
- Jack Schmidt - jjturtle [at] earthlink [dot] net
- Melissa Brand-Welch - melissabrandwelch [at] msn [dot] com
Comments
Today
IN gives $350K for New Harmony Bridge opening
https://www.14news.com/2019/12/20/gives-k-new-harmony-bridge...
August 1, 2019 at 12:13 PM CDT - Updated August 26 at 10:37
POSEY CO., Ind. (WFIE) - President Donald Trump signed the Restore the Harmony Way Bridge Act into law Friday.
The legislation was reintroduced to Congress in July by Rep. Larry Bucshon and John Shimkus with Senators Mike Braun, Todd Young, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin.
The U.S. Senate passed the bill at the end of July, sending it the president’s desk to be signed.
https://www.14news.com/2019/08/01/us-senate-passes-restore-h...
The bill has been put into law!! It will be brought back!!!
She lives again!!!
https://city-countyobserver.com/president-trump-signs-bridge...
Any movement Forward is good news ! I'm Thrilled !
ALL-FRICKIN RIGHT!!!!! Melissa: She-Who-Brings-Good-News
I have a photo of the barricade that is 500 feet from the bridge. I chose to not post it due to obscenities on it.
Posey County just recently agreed to take ownership of this bridge.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/local-news/southwest-indian...
This makes it possible for the County to apply for funding.
Here is a documentary of a history of the bridge.
The Courier Press published the story of Indiana coming up with $10m for a replacement bridge. Illinois said they are broke.
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2012/aug/14/illinois-wont-o...
What am I missing here? Wouldn't $10M do a real good job of repairing the old bridge?
http://www.wsiltv.com/news/three-states/Board-votes-to-close...
The closure was pushed up to May 21 due to IDOT.
New Harmony Bridge will permanently close May 29th 2012. There is no money to fix it.
Please visit http://www.in.gov/dnr/historic/files/harmonyway_bridge.pdf for the National Register application for the bridge. The bridge needs help! It needs to become owned by Illinois or Indiana, but neither state wants it. It needs a champion, or a campaign to make it state-owned. It does seem that the bridge was poorly administered over the years--in 1956 the bridge owned cameras and typewriters, and advertised in the Carmi newspaper, which was owned by one of the commissioners. It is the last bridge owned by a federally-chartered corporation. It's very bumpy but I will use it as long as I can.
Something very wrong here! This bridge was nearly debt free in 1955 and yet they continued to collect tolls for 55 years and now it can't pay for repairs. I smell a rat! The county officials who were the administrators of the bridge company must have squandered a fortune on over priced and unnecessary work over the last 50 years and now the birds have come home to roost. Unfortunately most of the responsible people are likely deceased. Find the Indianapolis News story of 1955 and it will give a lot of background about this. In 14 years the entire debt was paid off but in 56 years since then the bridge in millions in the red????
Indiana Landmarks has become concerned about the bridge's state and questions about how the bridge is being administered. Article:
http://www.indianalandmarks.org/NewsPhotos/Pages/NewsFeature...
If you want to find the Indianapolis News article it was from the May 30, 1955 edition "$635,000 Span Costs $3 Million" on page 15. I found it in a clippings file at the Indiana State Library and used a camera to take a photo. Almost posted it here but The Chicago Tribune bought the Indianapolis papers so they might consider it copyright infringement to post the whole article.
If this bridge were to be rehabilitated, I'd like to see new approaches. In the looks of the one approach-way, kind of on spidery bents and such for me, a new stinger would dress it up. I see older bridges get new approaches in Pittsburgh. I think this bridge could still serve tolled traffic better if it got the same treatment.
The bridge was not opened in 1932 as listed here, the bridge was opened with a big dedication ceremony in Dec. 1930.
This bridge was rehabbed during the 1970's,cause I remember lanes being closed and flagmen when my dad and I took a bird dog to be trained in Owensboro,KY. So it has been rehabbed twice I know of.
Anyone know if bikes are allowed to cross the bridge?
I live in Illinois and work in Indiana. I cross this bridge five days a week and it saves me 25 minutes each way. Me and my family depend on this bridge, especially when we need to take our children to the doctor or hospital.
The "Facts" are very outdated.
This bridge was closed from September 2007 and re-opened in April 2008.
This bridge is open, as we drove across it last Saturday.
They still charge the $1 dollar toll. The road bed looked
to have been resurfaced, but then ground down level to the old road bed.
This bridge closed "indefinitely" at 3:00pm on Tuesday, September 26, 2007.
Its open to traffic.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/in/posey/new-harmony/
Carl, love the new photos !