Trail/Aban/CSX/B&O over Wabash River at Montezuma, IN

(Bridge Hunter, no Historic Bridges, Satellite)

Parke County Historian posted

Title: Wabash River B & O railroad bridge (now a walking bridge)

Description: Picture of the Wabash River train bridge during the flood of 1913 with a train sitting over the water. There is a small group of men who appear to be checking the bridge and the train. The bridge was on the south edge of Montezuma, Indiana.

Parke County Public Library/indianamemory

Tuesday March 26, 1913, was the day many levees throughout Indiana began to break. The Wabash River reached its highest point in Lafayette history, 39.9 feet. The National Weather Bureau considers 25 feet of water to be the “major flood stage” for the Wabash River. To put this massive amount of water even further in perspective, the Wabash River had a peak flow during the flood of 190,000 cubic feet of water per second. www.purdueexponent.org

Note to self, the road bridge is also worth seeing. (I discovered this US-36 truss bridge when I tried to get a Street View of the old railroad bridge.)

Satellite

On of six photos posted by Jeffrey Bossaer
Old railroad bridge over the Wabash River at Montezuma, Indiana converted to pedestrian traffic. I think I saw an old map that identified this as the Indiana Decatur and Western Railroad.
Chad Quick I think the ID&W was folded into the B&O as this was their line from Indianapolis to Decatur
[The 2005 SPV Map shows the B&O predecessor as Cincinnati, Indianapolis & Western. It is possible that the ID&W was a predecessor to the CI&W.]

Fortunately funds were found to open it to pedestrian traffic because Brent's photo shows that the bridge was abandoned in 2013. CSX abandoned this former B&O route between its former C&EI route just west of the Wabash River and Indianapolis.

March 2013 Photo by Brent Tindall, public domain

It appears that CSX or a predecessor had already replaced the swing span truss with a truss that could be supported by its ends.

Comment by Rob in Bridge Hunter

Satellite

The old swing pier, debris field, and sandbar do add some interesting "character" to the bridge. Actually, it is nice if the old pier is left because otherwise I would have never known there was a swing span. It also shows that you do not want Mother Nature (trees) to take over because their roots can be remarkably destructive.

A 1912 postmarked postcard view shows this bridge has been a mix of girders and trusses for a long time, but it had more trusses than girders back then.

Ethan Fouts posted
Railroad bridge in Montezuma, Indiana.Now it’s a trail!