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Documenting North America's past & present covered bridges

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Newport, Vermillion County

If you find errors in the data please contact Bill Caswell.

If you would like to provide information on covered bridges that no longer exist from your state, or adopt a state to work on, we would certainly welcome your assistance. Please contact Trish Kane for more information.

Inventory Number: IN/14-83-04
County: Vermillion County
Township: Vermillion
Town/Village: Newport
Bridge Name: Newport
Crosses: Little Vermillion River
Truss type: Burr
Spans: 1
Length: 180' floor, 206' roofline
Roadway Width:
Built: 1885
Builder: Joseph J. Daniels
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N39 53.487
Longitude: W087 26.006
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 0.8 miles south of jct IN63 on IN71, then 0.6 miles left on CR150E (at cemetery), then 0.5 miles left on CR50N (Hopkins St.).

Newport Bridge, Vermillion, Vermillion County, IN Built 1885
Bill Caswell Photo, July 2007

Newport Bridge, Vermillion, IN Built 1885
© Lisa Plamondon

Newport Bridge, Vermillion, Vermillion County, IN Built 1885
Richard Donovan / Trish Kane Collection

Newport Bridge, Vermillion, IN Built 1885
Dale J. Travis Photo

Comments:
27/28-17N-9W. Closed. According to the National Register nomination form, there were 23 sealed bids submitted for this project in 1883. J.J. Daniels was awarded the contract with his bid of $6,800. The bridge was erected on a frequently traveled "free gravel road" at the ford at Samuel Morehead's farm between Newport and Quaker. The County Commissioners ordered it to be named the Morehead Bridge, but that was not popular and it referred to as the Newport Bridge even though it is nearly a mile from Newport. J.J. Daniels, builder of the Newport Bridge, was one of the best known bridge contractors in Indiana. He lived in Rockville in adjacent Parke County. Daniels experimented with the standard Burr design and, in this example, used iron shoes and tie rods. The use of doubled, concentric arches is unusual as well.

Sources:
Ketcham, Bryan E.. Covered Bridges on the Byways of Indiana, 1949, page 98
Gould, George E.. Indiana's Covered Bridges Thru the Years, 1977
County History Preservation Society (no longer accessible). Covered Bridges of Indiana, 2002, http://www.countyhistory.com/coveredbridge/vermillion2.htm
Travis, Dale. 'Indiana Covered Bridges List', updated to 11 Feb 2005, http://www.dalejtravis.com/cblist/cbin.htm (8 Mar 2005)
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 29