Indiana's Lincoln Highway

[DennyG]

Over the weekend I increased my Lincoln Highway experience by one more state. A three day drive betwixt the Ohio and Illinois lines is described here. An old friend and I did the original (1913) alignment west bound and returned on the final (1928) alignment. A little rain, a little, snow, and a little sunshine. Hey, it's Indiana.

[mobilene]

Denny, great report.

 

I'm surprised to learn that the "new" bridge in Fort Wayne dates to 1915; it looks like a standard modern (e.g., plain) design.

 

I looked up that abandoned pony truss bridge on Google Maps. You can see how the road used to be aligned there; they sure smoothed out that curve. Same can be said for the brick strip left behind near Ligonier.

 

I'm glad you got to stop at Bonnie Doon's! You've now had a classic Michiana experience. The other classic Michiana experience you had, but may not have noticed, was driving under the Grand Trunk Western railroad overpass in South Bend, between Miami and Sample Streets.

 

The Packard Predictor was at the Studebaker museum last time I was there. Maybe they've rotated it out for now.

 

I'm really surprised by the condition of old 30 west of Hamlet. Did you notice the Yellowstone Trail lurking on the other side of the tracks from there?

 

Thanks for the hat tip!

 

I wonder if the United Brethren were in the habit of signing their parsonages. I've seen other "UB Parsonage" buildings around. One's in Fulton, IN, along the MR/DH.

 

 

[DennyG]

I'm surprised to learn that the "new" bridge in Fort Wayne dates to 1915; it looks like a standard modern (e.g., plain) design.

Same here. Until we saw the plaques, I was afraid we were in the wrong place.

 

I looked up that abandoned pony truss bridge on Google Maps. You can see how the road used to be aligned there; they sure smoothed out that curve. Same can be said for the brick strip left behind near Ligonier.

While on site, we theorized that the north-south Chase Road had been part of a square corner on the original path. Later checking showed that the current bridge-crossing gravel segment was the original LH. It sure looked drivable.

 

I'm glad you got to stop at Bonnie Doon's! You've now had a classic Michiana experience. The other classic Michiana experience you had, but may not have noticed, was driving under the Grand Trunk Western railroad overpass in South Bend, between Miami and Sample Streets.

I guess we didn't notice that. At least I don't recall it. Probably still savoring the ice cream.

 

I'm really surprised by the condition of old 30 west of Hamlet. Did you notice the Yellowstone Trail lurking on the other side of the tracks from there?

I had noticed it when originally plotting the route but didn't make a note of it and didn't remember it while we were on the road. I did notice (and took some blurred pictures of) many abandoned four & five armed utility poles along the track.

[Chris Rowland]

Over the weekend I increased my Lincoln Highway experience by one more state.

How many of those places did you plan to see in advance? Seems like you had pre-planned at least some GPS coordinates for the LH markers. Did you pre-plan all of the bridges, etc., also? Or did you just play it by ear?

 

Chris

[DennyG]

How many of those places did you plan to see in advance? Seems like you had pre-planned at least some GPS coordinates for the LH markers. Did you pre-plan all of the bridges, etc., also? Or did you just play it by ear?

 

Chris

I had plotted the intended route from the LH Driving CDs and had also noted some attractions from there; Specifically the mile markers and a couple of bridges. This was my first "road test" with information from the CD and I was quite impressed. There's a lot of detail on that little disk. There's no background information on either the road or the attractions but that's not the goal. You can find something's story elsewhere; the CD provides locations.