Hyland Road Bridge, Dover, Indiana

Indiana has a wide variety of beautiful and interesting historic bridges! Everything from the Queen Mary of all bridges….The Triple Whipple Bridge to our focus of attention today, the lowly Hyland Road Bridge in Northern Dearborn County.

Built around 1910 this unassuming concrete bridge is about 27 feet long and spans Ennis Creek. Nothing to write home about and actually quite boring as it doesn’t have the architectural finesse that would catch the eye. The bridge is in amazingly good shape for being over 110 years old and could easily last another 40 or 50 years except for one little problem…..It’s only about 16 feet wide. When this bridge was built in 1910, the Model T was only about 66 inches or 5 and a half feet wide which meant on the rare chance that two model T’s met on the bridge going in opposite directions….They could easily pass without much trouble. However, in 2021 a Ford F-150 is at least 80 inches wide which means that this little bridge is now effectively a one lane bridge unless you want to clip mirrors with oncoming motorists.

Structurally sound but outdated by todays traffic standards, this is one of a handful of one lane bridges still standing in Dearborn County.

GPS Location: 39º15’46.6″N 84º57’18.3″W