Tornado Destroys Covered Bridge, The Story of The J.D. Coffing Bridge, Attica, Indiana

Before we talk about this bridge, let’s start at the beginning to see how we got here in the first place…

Originally there was the Mill Street Covered Bridge built in 1861 by the Attica Bridge Company across the Wabash River in the town of Attica, Indiana which is about 20 miles northeast of the J.D. Coffing Bridge.

The covered bridge had two sections separated by a rotating drawspan to allow larger boats to travel up and down the river. The west side of the bridge was longer and appears to have been two spans with an added stone pier for support.

The covered bridge was destroyed by a tornado on May 12, 1886.

Later that year a new wrought iron Pratt through truss bridge was built by the Milwaukee Bridge & Iron Works of Milwaukee, Wisconsin to replace the damaged covered bridge. The new bridge was 7 spans and stood at this location until 1924.

The wrought iron bridge was removed in 1924 but before its removal, it was replaced with this concrete bridge in 1922 known as the Paul Dresser Bridge, which was replaced with the current bridge in 1983. One of the original stone piers still stands. Word has it that the local historical society fought to keep one of the piers standing for historical purposes but the other piers were removed after the 1983 bridge was completed.

But back to the wrought iron bridge…When it was dismantled in 1924 the spans were reused as smaller bridges throughout Fountain County. Two of the spans were rebuilt together over Coal Creek which was named for deposits of coal along its banks. That bridge, known as the J.D. Coffing Bridge is about 259 feet long and sits on County Road 800 South near the community of Coal Creek.

Coal Creek was originally established as Headley’s Mills. However, according to records at the U.S. Post Office, the name was changed by postmaster Samuel I. Snoddy to Snoddy Mills on October 24, 1864. On July 11, 1888 the name was changed once again to Coal Creek by postmaster John D. Orahood.

The name for the bridge, J.D. Coffing, comes from a local land owner John Dayton Coffing who co-foundd Coffing Brothers Orchards just up the road.

GPS  Location:  40º00’39.1″N 87º23’05.6″W