Monon Trail Freedom Bridge over IN-25 near Delphi, IN

(Bridge Hunter broke Mar 22, 2023; Satellite)

I got my masters degree at Purdue in Lafayette, IN, and my hometown is Fort Wayne, IN, so I drove IN-25 several times between those two towns. Parts of that road followed the Wabash river so closely that it was a twisty, 2-lane road for many miles. And you could not pass a slow vehicle because of all of the curves in the road. It is nice to see that Indiana finally replaced that road. And it is nice that they did not allow the new road to sever the trail on the Monon Railroad RoW to the High Bridge over Deer Creek. And it is even nicer that they preserved a pin-connected truss to build the trail bridge. Taking a quick look at a map, it appears that US-24 between IN-25 and Fort Wayne has also been upgraded to a 4-lane highway. Now if Indiana could just get a third lane added to I-65 all the way between Gary and Indianapolis, I would be a happier camper. Google Earth shows that the new IN-25 by Delphi was built between Dec 2013 and Sep 2014. And it looks like that might have been the last segment of the new highway.

Street View, Aug 2018

It is obviously a pin-connected truss.

Street View, Aug 2018

2 of 5 photos posted by Kevin Culver. 

Kevin Culver shared

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Because of the economic legacy of the Wabash & Erie Canal, there was a lot of truck traffic on this country road. That made it even more significant that Indiana finally made it easy to pass slow traffic. Judging by the photos on Google Maps, Indiana took advantage of the federal funding for a new highway and built a fancy interpretive center as well as preserved a truss bridge.

Amanda Gorringe, Jul 2019, cropped