1880s,1914-2016 IN-1 Bridges over Whitewater River at Cedar Grove, IN

1880s: (Bridge Hunter)

1914: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite, demolished Feb 17, 2016)

Look at BridgeHunter-1880s for a couple photos of the bowstring bridge. Here is a higher resolution of the overview photo.

The 1880s bridge was destroyed by a flood in 1913. That flood impacted a lot of Indiana. Here are views of the flood at Wheeling Ave. and High St. in Muncie and in Gosport on the White River. Also in Shoals on the East Fork White River.

The bowstring bridge was replaced by a multi-span Camelback truss in 1914. "These are among the longest Camelbacks extant in Indiana and one of a handful of riveted ones." [HistoricBridges]

2015 Photo by Ed Hollowell via BridgeHunter-1914, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)

The metal piers are rather unique.

2015 Photo by Ed Hollowell via BridgeHunter-1914, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)

1955 Cedar Grove Quad @ 24,000

safe_image for "The Cedar Grove Bridge, Cedar Grove, Indiana" 5:37 video

Back  in  1880  a  three  span  bowstring  through  truss  bridge  crossed  this  section  of  the  

Whitewater  River  near  the  town  of  Cedar  Grove,  Indiana.  It  was  built  by  the  King  

Iron  Bridge Company  but  was  destroyed  in  the  massive  Flood  of  1913  which  wiped  

out  many  other  bridges  in  the  area.

In  1914  this  dual  span  Camelback  steel  through  Truss  Bridge  was  built  and  eventually  it  was  incorporated  into  the  new  state  route  system.  This  particular  bridge  became  part  of  State  Route  1.  It  served  the  rural  area  of  southeastern  Indiana  particularly  Franklin  County  until  a  new  bridge  was  built  upstream  in  1998.  This  bridge  was  closed  to  traffic  on  September  3rd  1999. 

Since  1999  it  served  as  a  bridge  for  people  to  walk  across  getting  to  and  from  Cedar  Grove   and  to  take  in  the  beautiful  view  of  the  river  below.  Unfortunately  in  2011  the  Indiana  Department  of  Transportation  decided  it  was  time  to  demolish  the  bridge.  However  a  state  based  group  called  Indiana  Landmarks  teamed  up  with  a  grassroots  group  called  "The  Friends  of  the  Cedar  Grove  Bridge"  to  help  save  the  structure  from  demolition.  Plans  were  to  restore  the  bridge  for  pedestrian  traffic  and  to  reopen  it  as  a  park  for  the  local  community.  After  two  years  of  fighting  to  save  the  bridge,  the  campaign  was  finally  shelved  due  to  the  lack  of  interest  and  support  from  the  area  residents  and  local  government  officials.  It   was   demolished   on   February   17,   2016.

GPS  Location:  39°21'12.2"N 84°56'34.5"W

Documentation of the demolition of the bridge in the above video starts here.

5:37 video @ 3:20