Facts
- Overview
- Lost two-span covered bridge over Big Raccoon Creek on CR S150E
- Location
- Parke County, Indiana
- Status
- Destroyed by arson
- History
- Built 1915 by J.A. Britton; destroyed by arson April 2, 2002
- Design
- Covered Burr arch-truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 102.0 ft.
Total length: 222.1 ft.
Deck width: 14.8 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 12.9 ft.
- Recognition
- Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on December 22, 1978
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +39.63019, -87.20833 (decimal degrees)
39°37'49" N, 87°12'30" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Inventory numbers
- INNBI 6100018 (Indiana bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
WGCB 14-61-03 (World Guide to Covered Bridges number)
NRHP 78000394 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 16809 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 05/2006)
- Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 18.0 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2000)
- 159
Comments
I guess Parke County has made a hard decision to replace the Jeffries Ford with a modern concrete structure due to funds falling short. They tried hard for funds, then the nearby Bridgeton Bridge which was scenic world famous was burned three years later. Major efforts and funding went to rebuild the Bridgeton Bridge which was for pedestrians only and was completed on October 1, 2006. The difference is the Jeffries Ford was for vehicles, the arson closed the road, and building a modern vehicular covered bridge is more costly and residents had to take a longer detour. Jesse Payne who burned the Bridgeton, attempted to burn the Mansfield, and a person of interest for this bridges arson is still in a mental institution said to be unable to stand trial still as far as I know. A modern concrete bridge would be built not because the Jeffries Ford Bridge was removed by county, but because somebody destroyed it! I wish a modern covered bridge could have been built, but I understand and I'm okay with the countys decision if thats still what they want to do.