CSX/B&O, 1882 Trail/NYC and Pipe Bridges over Tanners Creek near Aurora, IN

Trail/NYC: (Bridge Hunter; B&T; Satellite)

Built 1882 over Tanners Creek on the former Cincinnati and Southern Ohio River Railway, it became a part of the 'Big Four' rail line in 1915. [BridgeHunter]

These bridges are actually closer to Lawrenceburg than Aurora, but I used Aurora in the title because it has another nicely preserved truss bridge.

J.P. Jun 2009 Photo via BridgeHunter

1 of 4 photos posted by Bridges & tunnels with Sherman Cahal

A railroad bridge over Tanners Creek between Lawrenceburg and Aurora, Indiana was constructed by the Kellogg & Maurice Bridge Company for the Cincinnati & Southern Ohio River Railroad in 1882. Because much of the railroad was never completed along the Ohio River to New Albany, the line only saw limited traffic to a few local shippers in Aurora. It was eventually abandoned by Conrail in 1979.

Thankfully, the Pratt through truss bridge was not demolished. It was instead renovated in 1982 for a rail-to-trail conversion project.

Check out more photos of this bridge at http://bridgestunnels.com/.../tanners-creek-railroad-bridge/

In the background is the best view I've seen of the CSX/B&O bridge. Note that it still has cut stone piers.

1 of 12 photos in B&T

1943 Lawrenceburg Quad @ 1:24,000

B&T's blog has a slightly different history than does their Facebook post: "The bridge was repurposed for Indiana & Michigan Power in 1982 and in 2006 for the Aurora-Lawrenceburg Trail, a rail-to-trail between Lawrenceburg and Aurora." I&M's involvement explains what the pipe bridge is for. There used to be a power plant along the river and the pipes probably carried waste water to the settling ponds on the other side of the creek. I thought that maybe I&M used the Big Four bridge in 1982 to carry its pipes and then they built a bridge for the pipes in 2006 so that the Big Four bridge could be used for a trail. But the oldest usable satellite image in Google Earth, Apr 1993, shows the pipe bridge had already been built. Here is a view where the power plant was still receiving coal from barges. I found barges as recently as Jun 2014. The power plant was still standing in Apr 2017, but the buildings were gone by Mar 2018, and the smokestacks were gone by Oct 2018.

Google Earth, Mar 2005