The Fort Ritner Phantom Bridge, Fort Ritner, Indiana

[Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] welcome back to another edition of history in your own backyard i'm satoli today we're in south central indiana at the site of the fort ritter bridge stay tuned and i'll tell you all about it before we talk about this old bridge let's talk about what defines a ghost road and a phantom bridge a ghost road is a roadway that was once owned or is currently owned by the county this road originally carried traffic on a daily basis but over the years the county may have chosen to no longer maintain the road or close it completely the road may now be private property or could still be owned by the county a phantom bridge is a span that was once used on a daily basis to cross a body of water such as a stream or a creek a phantom bridge is always located on a ghost road and can be one of the ultimate finds during a road tour phantom bridges were usually bypassed after the current roadway was realigned a phantom bridge can usually be located near a bridge currently in use a good way to spot phantom bridges is to look left and right when crossing a bridge sometimes these bridges may be up to 100 yards up or down stream from the current bridge location now that we know about ghost roads and phantom bridges let's take a look at this old bridge built in 1895 by the lafayette bridge company of lafayette indiana the fort ritter phantom bridge is 354 feet long and spans the east fork of the white river the bridge is located just a mile from the village of fort rittner and connects lawrence and washington counties beginning in 1829 a ferry owned by sinclair cox was used to cross this portion of the river in early 1895 the county commissioners granted a petition filed by william a holland and others for a bridge to be built at this location bids were submitted by june of 1895 with the lafayette bridge company submitting the winning bid of 8 360 lutky and phillyn submitted the winning bid for the stone abutments and pier at 9 400 the bridge was completed in december of 1895. one of the most unusual aspects of this structure is that the builder plaques are words spelled out with punched holes in a piece of steel as opposed to the more traditional plaques that are embossed the bridge served the local residents faithfully but due to lack of maintenance it fell into disrepair by 2006 when we did our automobile road rallies across the bridge the weight limit was down to just two tons in 2014 the bridge was closed to all automobile traffic with the perception that this would only be temporary and the bridge would undergo a restoration unfortunately seven years later the bridge is still closed and it doesn't appear that help is coming anytime soon a few days before i shot this video in october of 2020 someone had started a fire on the deck of the bridge which resulted in the local fire department cutting a hole in the deck in order to keep the fire from spreading across the entire span [Music] do [Music] do [Music] like [Music] thanks for watching another edition of history in your own backyard hope you enjoyed it and remember travel slowly and stop often we'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: History in Your Own Backyard

Views: 737

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Indiana, Lawrence County, Washington County, Fort Ritner, Bridge, White River, Abandoned, Phantom, Ghost, History, Historic

Id: fF1n-WtS2DI

Length: 6min 2sec (362 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 27 2021