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Documenting North America's past & present covered bridges

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Mecca, Parke 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/14-61-13
Parke County Number: PC-21
County: Parke County
Township: Wabash
Town/Village: Mecca
Bridge Name: Mecca
Crosses: Big Raccoon Creek
Truss type: Burr
Spans: 1
Length: 150' floor, 176' roofline
Roadway Width:
Built: 1873
Builder: Joseph J. Daniels
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N39 43.749
Longitude: W087 19.500
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 4.3 miles west-southwest of US36 in Rockville on US41 then 1.4 miles right on Mecca Rd. (becomes Wabash St.) and 0.2 miles left on Raccoon St. to the bridge on the left side of the road. West edge Mecca.

Mecca Bridge, Wabash, Parke County, IN Built 1873
Richard Donovan / Trish Kane Collection

Mecca Bridge, Wabash, IN Built 1873
Dale J. Travis Photo

Mecca Bridge, Wabash, Parke County, IN Built 1873
Greg McDuffee Photo, November 15, 2019

Mecca Bridge, Wabash, Parke County, IN Built 1873
Bill & Jenn Caswell Photo, March 14, 2020

Comments:
[20-15N-8W]. J.J. Daniels was awarded the contract for this bridge with his bid of $7,650. A new gravel road built between Rockville and Mecca between 1877 and 1879 increased traffic through the bridge. Parts of this road would eventually become US41. The bridge survived floods in 1875, 1913, July 1957 and 1990 with water rising above the floor in the last two floods. The brdge was closed to traffic and bypassed in 1964 or 1965. Restored 1993.

Sources:
Ketcham, Bryan E.. Covered Bridges on the Byways of Indiana, 1949, page 116
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/parke/mecca.htm
Rau, Harold. A Guide to the Covered Bridges of Parke County, Indiana, 2016, pages 40-41
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 22

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