CR-250 West Bridge

Information and Findings From DHPA Historic Bridge Survey

Bridge History and Significance

Residents adjacent to Lattas Creek started a petition drive in about 1918 "to clean" or to ditch the creek. By 1919 their petition had reached the commissioners who, in time, appointed surveyors and assessors. Assessments for property owners and contracting for ditching were not agreed to until 1921 and the re-bridging of the creek/ditch began in earnest some years later. The county road (now C.R. 250W) had been in use since at least the 1870s, and the crossing of Lattas Creek had probably been spanned. The county apparently tried to slip the old bridge into the new and enlarged site. It didn't work. By June 1929, the "bridge having completely fallen in," the commissioners reluctantly ordered plans for a new one followed by advertising for bids. In August, the Vincennes Bridge Company carried off a $4,675 contract for the replacement. Seated upon concrete abutments and wing-walls, this full-hip, riveted, Pratt pony-truss span relied heavily on angle sections. Subdividing the span into four long panels, the verticals, for example, were fabricated from two pairs of angles riveted together with battens. A pair of angles riveted together with angle-battens supply the diagonals and counters in the two center panels as well as the lower chord members. Braces added outside the trusses between the tops of the verticals and the floor-beams provide some protection against the swaying which heavy, fast-moving loads can induce. The rolled, heavy, I-floor-beams which are riveted to the verticals support I-beam stringers and together carry the concrete deck and roadway. A pair of angles line the trusses as rails. This bridge represents the late-beginning of the last stage of pony-truss fabrication on Indiana county roadways. A notable Indiana fabricator designed and built this unadorned structure with an unusually long span for pony trusses and long panels, too. The trusses retain their original members. Some of the cut-stone from the abutments of the previous bridge on this long-used county road remains as walling next to the concrete substructure. References Butler, Fairman & Seufert, Inc., Bridge Inspection Report: Greene County (Indianapolis, 1974). M.W., Inc., Bridge Reinspection Report: Greene County (Indianapolis, 1978). United Consulting Engineers, Inc., Bridge Reinspection Report: Greene County (Indianapolis, 1981). Greene County, "Commissioners Docket," 17: 56, 109, 304-305, 307-308.

Bridge Considered Historic By Survey: Yes