New Harmony Toll Bridge
| New Harmony Toll Bridge | |
|---|---|
| Carries | Illinois Route 14/Indiana State Road 66 |
| Crosses | Wabash River |
| Locale | New Harmony, Indiana |
| Maintained by | White County Bridge Commission |
| Characteristics | |
| Design |
Riveted, Parker through truss |
|
Harmony Way Bridge
|
|
Southern side of the Indiana end
|
|
 
|
|
| Nearest city | New Harmony, Indiana |
| Coordinates | 38°07′51″N 87°56′29″W / 38.13090°N 87.9415°WCoordinates: 38°07′51″N 87°56′29″W / 38.13090°N 87.9415°W |
| Built | 1930 |
| Architect | Parsons, Klapp, Brinckerhoff & Douglas |
| Architectural style | Other |
| NRHP Reference # | 07001030 |
| Added to NRHP | October 3, 2007 |
| Material | steel |
| Total length | 2,579 feet (786 m) |
| Width | 20 feet (6.1 m) |
| No. of spans | 47 |
| History | |
| Opened | December 21, 1930 |
| Closed | May 21, 2012 |
Riveted, Parker through truss
The New Harmony Toll Bridge, also known as the Harmony Way Bridge, is a now-closed two-lane bridge across the Wabash River that connects Illinois Route 14 with Indiana State Road 66, which is Church Street in New Harmony, Indiana. The bridge links White County, Illinois with Posey County, Indiana. The four-span bridge is owned by the White County Bridge Commission and was built without federal funds in 1930 by the Big Wabash Bridge Company of Carmi, Illinois. The next bridge across the Wabash about 15 miles (24 km) downstream is the Wabash Memorial Bridge near Mount Vernon, Indiana and the next bridge upstream is for Interstate 64, which does not allow farm vehicles.
As originally designed, the bridge is 2,579 feet (.49 of a mile) long. It has 47 spans and a 20 foot wide concrete roadway.
The bridge is the first highway bridge erected across the lower Wabash River and the oldest remaining bridge in use over the Wabash’s length in Illinois and half of Indiana. The original owner was a private company, the Big Wabash Bridge Company of Carmi, Illinois, which was chartered by Congress to build and operate the bridge on May 1, 1928. The company contracted with the Nashville Bridge Company of Nashville, Tennessee to build it. The bridge opened on December 21, 1930, and 10,000 people attended the dedication of the bridge on December 30, 1930. In 1941, Congress created the White County Bridge Commission as a joint Illinois-Indiana agency to purchase the bridge from the Big Wabash Bridge Company for $895,000.
About 900 vehicles crossed the bridge each day. The bridge collected an average of $30,000 in monthly tolls and had $22,000 in monthly expenses. The bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 in part because of its relationship to historic New Harmony, Indiana as well as the bridge's age. The three-member Commission was established by Congress on April 12, 1941, but Congress repealed the statute providing for an appointment mechanism in 1998. The Commission's general manager, who is 75, speculated that the bridge would close if the three current commissioners would resign or die.
...
Wikipedia