Putnamville Bridge

The Putnamville Bridge is an open-spandrel concrete arch bridge that carries County Route 550 South over Deer Creek in Putnam County, Indiana.

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The Putnamville Bridge is an open-spandrel concrete arch bridge that carries County Route 550 South—and formerly U.S. Route 40 (the National Road)—over Deer Creek in Putnam County, Indiana.

History

Early National Road Alignment

The National Road emerged from early federal efforts to bind the eastern states to the trans-Appalachian frontier through reliable overland transportation. Authorized by Congress in 1806 and constructed in stages beginning in 1811, the road was intended to facilitate westward migration, commercial exchange, and federal authority across newly admitted states. Built to accommodate foot traffic, horse-drawn wagons, and stagecoaches, the road was engineered with unusually high standards for its time, including a broad right-of-way, a carefully graded roadbed, and durable surfacing of stone, gravel, or compacted earth.

As the road advanced westward into Indiana during the 1820s and 1830s, engineers encountered increasingly varied terrain. While major rivers such as the Whitewater and the White River warranted substantial timber bridges, many smaller crossings in central Indiana were treated more pragmatically. ² In remote areas such as Putnam County, where deep valleys, long approaches, and sharp grade changes would have required costly multi-span structures, engineers often relied on gradual descents to natural fords. At Deer Creek, the National Road followed such a solution, descending along a broad curve to a shallow crossing before climbing back out of the valley. This alignment was established by at least 1836 and reflected a careful balance between construction cost, traffic demands, and available engineering techniques.

Although early federal specifications called for bridges at all crossings, the expense of constructing durable structures in isolated locations often delayed their realization. ² As traffic increased and vehicle loads grew heavier later in the nineteenth century, these fords and indirect alignments increasingly proved inadequate, setting the stage for later bridge construction.

Responsibility for the National Road shifted several times during the nineteenth century. In 1848, the federal government formally transferred control of the road to the State of Indiana. ² The state, already strained by debt from ambitious internal improvement projects such as canals and railroads, soon relinquished direct management. Oversight passed to the Central Plank Road Company, a private toll-road enterprise that improved sections of the route with wooden planking and erected tollgates to finance maintenance. By the late nineteenth century, however, the toll road system collapsed, and county governments along the route assumed responsibility for upkeep.

1891 Bridge

In 1890, J. C. Cooper petitioned for the construction of a bridge to carry the National Road across Deer Creek. ^{2 10} In early 1891, county commissioners approved plans for two stone abutments and a single-span superstructure under the supervision of J. T. Ohran. In May, the St. Louis Bridge & Iron Company of St. Louis, Missouri, proposed an iron superstructure for $1,827, while John and Timothy Murphy secured the contract to construct the cut-stone abutments at $5 per cubic yard.

The Murphys received periodic payments for locally quarried stonework between May and September. ^{2 10} The St. Louis Bridge & Iron Company received its first payment for the superstructure in October, and additional payments were approved in November for John M. Hendrix for supplying stone and for O. W. Bridges for work on the roadway fill. Construction was completed by the end of 1891.

The resulting Cooper Bridge sat perpendicular to Deer Creek, while the National Road approached it at sharp angles on both ends, creating difficult turns for traffic. ^{2 10}

1924 Bridge

The condition of the National Road continued to decline until the early twentieth century, when the rise of automobile traffic prompted renewed federal involvement in highway development. ² The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 marked a turning point, establishing a system of matching federal and state funds and requiring states to create centralized highway departments as a condition of participation. Indiana responded by establishing the State Highway Commission in 1917, though legal challenges delayed its full operation until 1919.

Once implemented, the commission moved quickly to modernize Indiana’s principal routes. ² Reviving and improving the National Road became an early priority, and under the newly adopted U.S. highway numbering system, the historic route was designated U.S. Route 40. By 1926, it stood out as the only highway in Indiana paved continuously from state line to state line. As part of this modernization, the state undertook major realignments, eliminated hazardous curves, and constructed a series of monumental concrete bridges—including open-spandrel arch designs—intended to convey permanence, progress, and federal-state cooperation.

The road in the Putnamville vicinity remained on its earlier alignment until 1923, when the federal government reclaimed the National Road with assistance from Indiana State Highway Commission officials. ² Seeking to eliminate the sharp turns at the Cooper Bridge, the commission relocated the roadway along Deer Creek and designed a monumental, decorated open-spandrel arch bridge for the new crossing (1, 2). On August 8, 1922, the state awarded a $65,741 construction contract to Edward F. Smith of Indianapolis. The bridge was completed in February 1924.

Open-spandrel arches were chosen where both the distance between roadway and stream and the volume of water were substantial, conditions that reduced the economic advantage of filled-spandrel arches. ³ These structures required extensive formwork and were therefore costly. Large examples typically used two or more longitudinal ribs to form the arch ring, with columns supporting the deck and transferring loads to the ribs, while beams and slabs carried the roadway. Because of their expense, the Indiana Highway Commission constructed only a limited number of open-spandrel arches during the 1920s.

The 1924 bridge measured 275 feet in length and consisted of four open-spandrel arches. ² Construction of the new alignment required 114 cubic yards of excavation and 16,069 cubic yards of embankment fill.

Bridge No. 187 of the National Road in Indiana—the earlier Cooper Bridge—was relocated in 1927. ^{2 10} Putnam County commissioners purchased the structure from the state for one dollar and contracted with Alonzo Day to dismantle, remove, and reconstruct it on new abutments along nearby Boesen Road for $4,350. The relocated bridge replaced an 1884 covered bridge. Alfred Cooper, representing a later generation of the Cooper family, supervised the relocation, and the construction of the approaches was completed in October.

1937 Bridge

In the mid-1930s, Indiana State Highway Commission engineers worked with federal transportation officials to adapt U.S. Route 40 for higher-speed automobile and truck traffic. ² As part of the “Highway Rearmament” program associated with World War II preparedness, the state four-laned U.S. 40 and again rerouted this section of the National Road in 1937. A new filled-spandrel concrete arch bridge was constructed over Deer Creek, bypassing the 1924 open-spandrel structure. ^{1 2 5}

The 1937 bridge followed a conventional Indiana Department of Highways closed-spandrel arch design. ⁵ Construction employed Lone Star’s “Incor” 24-Hour Cement, which allowed normal construction progress during freezing weather.

The bridge was listed on the Indiana State Register of Historic Places on April 11, 2018, and on the National Register of Historic Places on May 23. ² It remains one of only two unaltered open-spandrel concrete arch bridges designed by the Indiana State Highway Commission still extant in the state.

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Gallery

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Details

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Sources

1. Holth, Nathan. “National Road Deer Creek Bridge.” HistoricBridges.org, 26 May 2019.
2. Wernicke, Rose, and Paul Diebold. “National Road over Deer Creek Historic District.” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. National Park Service, 16 Dec. 2015.
3. Cooper, James L. “Putnam County Bridge Number 237.” Historic American Engineering Record, 1989.
4. “Concrete Bridge.” Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database, 1980.
5. “Indiana State Highway Bridge Number 40-67-1835A” Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database, 1990.
6. Butler, Fairman and Seufert, Inc. Bridge Inspection/Reinspection Report: Putnam County. Indianapolis, 1974, 1978.
7. Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory. Putnam County: Interim Report. Indianapolis, 1982, p. 46.
8. Engineering News-Record, vol. 126, 2 Jan. 1941, p. 63.
9. Inventory of Bridges on State Highway System of Indiana. Indianapolis, 1989.
10. Holth, Nathan. “Cooper Bridge.” HistoricBridges.org, 26 May 2019.