Parke County Covered Bridges

Parke County, IN is known as the "Covered Bridge Capital of the World".  It currently has 31 covered bridges with 21 of them still being used today. At one time Parke County had 51 1/2 covered bridges.  The 1/2 bridge was a shared bridge with Vermillion county that crossed the Wabash river.  Half the bridge was in Parke County and the other half was in Vermillion County.  That bridge has been torn down.  Most of the bridges were built be either J.J. Daniels or by J.A. Britton.  All but one of the bridges are Burr Arch Truss bridges.  One bridge, the Phillips Bridge, was built using the King Post structure.  Phillips bridge is the shortest covered bridge in Parke County.  It is only 43 ft long and crosses the Big Pond Creek.  It was built in 1909 by J.A. Britton.  The three other bridges we found were all Burr Arch Truss but interesting due to their condition and stories.  The Melcher bridge  was built by J.J. Daniels in 1896.  It is 83ft long and crosses the Leatherwood Creek.  Sometimes is was called the Klondyke Bridge for a nearby community of the same name.  The Mecca Bridge was built in 1873 by J.J. Daniels and is 150 ft long.  It is one of the longest bridges in Parke County and crosses the Big Raccoon River.  The final bridge we saw was the Sim Smith Bridge. It is 101 ft long and crosses the Leatherwood Creek.  It has two windows built differently.  One window is a J.A. Britton design but the other window is a J.J. Daniels design.   The Sim Smith bridge is said to be haunted.  There are two stories, one story has been told since the 1890s and that is that horses hoofs could be heard but while waiting for the horse and buggy to come over the bridge it  never was seen just heard.  The second story is late at night you can see an 8 ft Indian woman at the opposite end of the bridge holding a papoose. 
Covered bridges were built because horses did not like to crossing over open bridges due to the rushing water that would scare them.  Covered bridges made it easier to cross with horses and they all looked alike because they are suppose to look like barn door openings to fool the horses.  The saying 'Cross this bridge at a walk'  was used  because horses'  hoofs were actually very hard on the bridges but it they crossed at a walk the stress on the bridge was less.  Covered bridges were also called 'kissing bridges' because couples would stop on the covered bridge and kiss away from the public eye. The covered bridges were painted red to look like barns and because red pigment was inexpensive.  We have really enjoyed checking out the covered bridges and we are going to go searching for more today!  Check back tomorrow and see what we find.