The Quest for the Tulip Trestle
It was another of Nature Dave's crazy ideas. Let's get out of bed on the
President's Day holiday (when I could have been sleeping in), and ride to Tulip, Indiana, to
look at a train trestle. Yeah, okay...whatever. Did I mention it was 28°F that morning?
As it turned out of course, it was an excellent ride. We followed one of Nature Dave's typically convoluted routes, complete with backtracking a couple of times, to Bloomfield. A short trip south of town took us to the Richland-Plummer Creek Covered Bridge (latitude: 38.9930964 longitude: -86.9373250).
| The bridge is in very good condition and is quite scenic. |
 |
 |
We had to make a minor water crossing to get there. Denny Sutton showed the GS riders the way through. |
 |
| This shot shows the Burr Arch Truss design and the surprisingly graffiti-free interior. |
 |
 |
Where's Waldo? |
| Some historical information about the covered bridge. |
 |
 |
We headed back to Bloomfield... |
| ...where we stopped for lunch at Joe's Pizza. (I'll just say it's not
highly recommended and leave it at that.) |
 |
After lunch it was time for the main event of the day. We headed northeast
out of town in search of our holy grail...The Greene County Viaduct, aka, the Richland Creek Viaduct,
aka, the Tulip Trestle. After another U-turn or two and 3 or 4 miles of gravel roads, we rounded
a bend and were met with the impressive site of Bridge X75-6...
The railroad trestle was constructed in 1905 and 1906, and it remains in use today. It is an
imposing structure to say the least. At 2,307' (0.44 miles) in length, it is the third longest
bridge of its kind in the world. It has 18 support towers and is 157' high. (latitude:
39.0754724 longitude : -86.8554425)
An arduous hike up the ridge presented some excellent views from the top of the trestle...
Back in the valley, Nature Dave modeled the latest in "Medieval Village Idiot" headwear as we prepared for the trip home...
| | Chris Hancock
February 2009 |
