This is a list of Indiana covered bridges. There are 98 historic wooden

covered bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

s in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. Fourteen of these bridges were built before 1870 and represent the most common truss styles (

Burr Arch The Burr Arch Truss—or, simply, Burr Truss or Burr Arch—is a combination of an arch and a ''multiple kingpost'' truss design. It was invented in 1804 by Theodore Burr, patented on April 3, 1817, and used in bridges, usually covered bridge ...

) in Indiana. Parke County bills itself as the covered bridge capital of the world.Parke County Chamber of Commerce
/ref> Combined with six counties that surround it, there are 51 of Indiana’s 98 covered bridges in this small area: Parke County (32), Putnam County (9), Fountain County (3), Vermillion County (3), Montgomery County (2), Owen County (1) and Vigo County (1). The majority, 54, are

truss designs, while the next most common truss style is a

Howe truss A Howe truss is a truss bridge consisting of chords, verticals, and diagonals whose vertical members are in tension and whose diagonal members are in compression. The Howe truss was invented by William Howe in 1840, and was widely used as a bridg ...

with 23. One each of the older style

King Post A king post (or king-post or kingpost) is a central vertical post used in architectural or bridge designs, working in tension to support a beam below from a truss apex above (whereas a crown post, though visually similar, supports items above fro ...

and

Queen Post A queen post is a tension member in a truss that can span longer openings than a king post truss. A king post uses one central supporting post, whereas the queen post truss uses two. Even though it is a tension member, rather than a compression me ...

are located in the western part of the state; Philips Bridge, west of Rockville in Parke County and Irishman Bridge, south of Terre Haute in Vigo County, respectively.Indiana Atlas & Gazetteer, DeLorme Publishing; 3rd edition (2004), pg 9 Indiana also has examples of the

Long Truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension (mechanics), tensi ...

and the Smith Type IV Truss. The remaining span of the

Bell Ford Bridge The Bell Ford Post Patented Diagonal "Combination Bridge", often simply called the Bell Ford Bridge or Bell Ford Covered Bridge, is a dilapidated covered bridge located in Jackson County, Indiana, northwest of Seymour, Indiana. The bridge origin ...

, northwest of Seymour in Jackson County, collapsed in January 2006. It was the last standing example of a

Post Truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

covered bridge in the world.

List of Covered Bridges

Extant

Nonextant

Notes

* Sorting this column will result in bridges being listed in order by county.

References

External links