A friend and I went to Madison for the day last Saturday and we drove the Michigan Road home. When we got to the stone bridge just inside Ripley County, we found that the creek had gone dry. Seeing an opportunity for a much closer look at this old girl, we stopped.
We know nothing about building or restoring stone bridges, so we couldn’t figure out whether this is amateur restoration work, or whether a 19th-century coating of cement had been flaking off over time. Either way, things don’t look good under here.
We were curious about the mortar here, as well. It seems so sloppily applied. The cement support is clearly recent; somebody wrote “10-1-1997” and their initials in it while it was still wet.
Regardless, this bridge remains a gem, something Ripley County should be proud of.
I’ve documented Indiana’s historic Michigan Road extensively. To read all about it, click here.
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