1895 Dunn's Bridge over Kankakee River in Porter County, IN

(Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Street View, May 2024

The river was running high in May 2024. Here it is lower.

Street View, Oct 2022

PorterCountyParks

"The origin of Dunn's Bridge County Park has become the stuff of legend. Most historians agree that the bridge was built by a farmer named J.D. Dunn, whose property was bisected by the Kankakee River. But beyond that, the facts are a bit murky. Some say the bridge was built in the mid-1890s using steel beams salvaged from the 1893 Colombian Worlds Fair in Chicago. Others contend the bridge was built using pieces of the original Ferris Wheel, which premiered at the fair and was dismantled after the 1904 Worlds Fair. 

"Porter County Parks and Recreation purchased the 180-foot-long bridge and surrounding three acres in 1994, and undertook the award-winning restoration that helped land the bridge on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge offers the only designated public access to the Kankakee River in Porter County, allowing fishermen and paddlers to launch their boat here and enjoy the beautify natural surroundings. Those who enjoy fishing can cast for walleye, bass, crappie, bluegill and Northern Pike, among others. In 2016, the Kankakee River was designated a national water trail."

HistoricBridges

Bridges Now and Then posted, also HistoricBridges and PorterHistory
“Construction of Dunn's Bridge over the Kankakee River, year unknown.” (Meyer's The Story of Kankakee Township, 1979)

Glenn Lemenager: Anyone have any idea where that might have been?

Dennis DeBruler: Glenn Lemenager Still exists: https://maps.app.goo.gl/jmeR1Umbi6yfoEzM7 in Dunn's Bridge County Park, https://www.portercountyparks.org/dunns-bridge.

This is another of the five historical images that HistoricBridges has.

PorterHistory
Postcard image of auto race crossing Dunn's Bridge postmarked in 1915.

"Source: Collection of Steven R. Shook.

"It is probable that the bridge trusses did indeed originate from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, but more likely from one of the domed or barrel-arched structures that were dismantled after the exposition. One persistent theory is that the arches were obtained from the dismantled Administration Building from the World's Columbian Exposition."

PorterHistory

 Administration Building, World's Columbian Exposition in

Chicago, 1893. The arches used to construct the dome

of this building may have been used to construct Dunn's Bridge.

Source: Official Views of the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, Plate 23.