Let’s return to my 2007 road trip along US 36 and the Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway in western Indiana.
It’s hard now to imagine why it was necessary to move US 36 one block to the north in Bainbridge. But that’s just what was done in this small Putnam County town.
This bypass begins just a half mile west of the old alignment I shared last time, the one with the covered bridge over Big Walnut Creek. Here’s where the old and new alignments split.
The terrain rolls a little bit in this part of Indiana, and US 36 hugs it pretty good. This eastbound photo shows it from the beginning of the Bainbridge segment.
I passed a number of older houses set close to the road, and then I came to downtown Bainbridge, all two blocks of it. Its old buildings are left from when this town was probably quite vital. I suspect that the big building at right, at the corner of Main and Washington Streets, was once a hotel. An old-style bank with its door facing the corner was behind me.
As quickly as I entered Bainbridge, I left it. Here’s how Main St. flows into US 36 westbound.
Here’s the eastbound approach to Bainbridge.
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