Thorpe Ford Covered Bridge - Parke County, Indiana
by Susan Rissi Tregoning
Title
Thorpe Ford Covered Bridge - Parke County, Indiana
Artist
Susan Rissi Tregoning
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The Thorpe Ford Covered Bridge in Parke County, Indiana, is one of 31 covered bridges in the county.
J.A. Britton built the 163 feet long single-span double Burr Arch truss Thorpe Ford Covered Bridge in 1912. It sat on the Ben Hur highway, a major route between Terre Haute and Crawfordsville. So named in honor of Crawfordsville’s most famous resident, General Lew Wallace, the author of the novel Ben Hur. Automobile traffic was diverted when State Highway 41 was constructed, but heavy farm trucks continued to use the bridge until 1960 when it was condemned. The bridge was bypassed the following year.
The County Commissioner, J.M. May, is said to be responsible for getting this bridge built. There’s a story about him that took place right after his election. When attempting to travel from Rosedale to Rockville, he wanted to take a faster route instead of traveling through Coxville. Unfortunately, the directions he was given were so convoluted that he was lost for hours and vowed to build a new bridge would make the trip more direct.
Thorpe Ford Bridge is named after an early ford across the Big Raccoon Creek and Sarah Thorpe, who owned 92 acres of land next to the bridge in 1920. Her son, Dan, still lived near the bridge in 1948, but according to early Parke County road maps, the ford’s location is thought to have moved at least a ¼ mile in the last 100 years.
Copyright 2023 Susan Rissi Tregoning
Uploaded
January 7th, 2023
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