I’m eager to get out on the road now that the weather’s nice. But this year no particular road seems to be calling me. In 2007, US 36 in western Indiana interested me. In 2008, I immersed myself in the Michigan Road. In 2009, I toured the National Road. I’ve had thoughts about doing the Indiana alignments of the Lincoln Highway this year, or maybe finally clinching the National Road by driving it across Ohio, or maybe trying to find all the old alignments of US 50 in Indiana.
Or maybe I’ll devote this road-trip season to finding old bridges. One of the best moments of any road trip is when I come across an old bridge. I especially enjoy steel truss bridges and wooden covered bridges, but stone arch, concrete arch, and suspension bridges are exciting too. There’s nothing like rounding a curve and having an old bridge come into view, a work of engineering and labor shouldering its burdens for many decades, even more than a century. Just like this covered bridge peeking out from behind the late-spring greenery on an old alignment of US 36 in Putnam County, Indiana. I didn’t know it was there, and I gasped as it revealed itself.
