Below is the bridge I go over almost every day on my way from the zoo to downtown Indianapolis. Now an esplanade, in 1834 it was NOT the covered bridge you see in the first picture here. It was also NOT a part of the National Road Thomas Jefferson signed into law in 1806 to connect Washington, DC with the Mississippi River. 

 

 

 

 

The bridge I travel over every day, first was built in 1870 as an extension of  Washington Street from downtown Indianapolis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To make it wider, for two years starting in 1902, it was rebuilt for a first time.  In order to increase the size of its roadbed, the old National Road covered bridge that came in at an angle to its western terminus, had had to be  torn down.

The 1870 bridge did not last long. On March 26, 1913, it  looked like this an hour before  it collapsed.  In the background, is the Uneeda Biscuit factory that began life in 1821 as first Acme Milling and then Acme Evans the makers of the regionally famous EZ Bake Flour.

A year later, in 1914, the Washington St bridge was rebuilt where it served until 1982 before it was closed to cars. It became the esplanade that it is today to make it a part of White River State Park in 1994.

With breakthrough research help from former Indiana State museum history researcher and Greenfield Tourism Director, Brigette Cook Jones.

 

 

Other posts about Indianapolis history Martin Krieg created as he wrote "How Indianapolis Built America" are at this link HERE