When world class unicyclist, Eddie Moffat and Martin Krieg ride to Columbus next Spring, besides showing what that change to our cross country route looks like, they will also be showing how Indianapolis shot itself in the foot. In 1902 when it dismantled its old wood covered National Road Bridge over the White River, Indianapolis the city lost a lot of its muscle. It lost its ability to call itself a leader. As Krieg says in THIS CHAPTER (“Why Indianapolis is the Gateway to the West, not St. Louis”) in the NBG book he is working on –
“By showing it as the transportation leader it long has been, in now embracing its greenways, ITS CYCLISTS ARE ALSO HONORED. It is this example that needs to also be replicated from one coast to the other.
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“Once it is established as the genuine Gateway to the Frontier, since it is the Crossroads of America where half the nation is within a day’s car drive, its profile as an important must visit city will skyrocket. Soon, large numbers of people will feel the need to experience for themselves the history that proliferates here. And as they do, they will feel called to enjoy the two-wheel wonder that abounds in what is more and more becoming accepted as America’s top bike city. Toward that end, the argument history scholars helped me to make in proving that it was Indianapolis that opened up the West, and not St. Louis, that will give added authority to Indy’s greenways. On center stage, Indianapolis will be able to show the power greenways have to re-energize business centers as well as build community .
In 1902, when the original wood covered, National Road bridge over the White River was dismantled, the city lost a lot of its muscle. It lost its ability to call itself a leader. In the name of progress, it had destroyed its connection to a past that led the way in settling the West.
In the 1960’s, when St. Louis was busy campaigning for federal dollars to rebuild its waterfront (and change its image from being known as Mound City) by re-branding itself as the Gateway to the West, Indianapolis was not even considered. It had nothing to show for itself.
In yielding the Gateway moniker to St, Louis, Indianapolis got pushed off to the side. Once former Indiana state historian, Brigette Cook Jones, and I discovered the wood-covered National Road bridge, that even local history has expunged from the record books, I knew we had made a huge breakthrough. I knew its memory had to celebrated. It would help Indianapolis shine as the transportation leader it always has been.
Nor do I make this statement lightly. With the help of well qualified others, once we discovered this expunged bridge, it set me off on a path to back up what I felt it signified. I pumped a lot of time into learning what I could about it. As such, what has resulted is the ironclad argument I have made in my book about Indianapolis being the Gateway to the West and not St. Louis.
What I have proposed has been accepted by local and state historiographers, as well as local business leaders. Once this becomes an accepted notion beyond city and state confines, more and more people all over this Nation will pay attention to the leading edge/trendsetting direction that Indianapolis is moving in with its Greenways.
In terms of how the original bridge was used, in 1834 it enabled the National Road from Washington, DC to reach the frontier of the West on the other side of the White River. At one point, there were as many as 90 wagons on it an hour.
At the very least, there needs to be an historical marker along the river’s edge on the black railing between the water and Celebration Plaza & Amphitheater in White River State Park. A nominal expense, this can be done now!”
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