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Laughery Creek Bridge

Indiana, US

Laughery Creek Bridge

The Laughery Creek Bridge is the only known example of a triple Whipple truss bridge; it is located on the border of Dearborn County, Indiana, and Ohio County, Indiana. It crosses Laughery Creek. This bridge was built in 1868. The Wrought Iron Bridge Company, a prolific late 19th-century bridge comp

any, constructed the bridge. The bridge is seated on stone abutments. The deck surface is not original and is currently concrete. The bridge, nearly 300 feet (91 m) in length, is a single-span, pin-connected, triple-intersection Whipple through truss, and is the only example in the world of this truss type. The name bridge's nickname, "Triple Whipple Bridge" is a play on words. The double-intersection Pratt, which was called the Whipple truss configuration, was a far more common variation of the standard Pratt configuration. Since the Laughery Creek Bridge's members have three intersections instead of two, this gives rise to the "Triple Whipple" name. This bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. After closing in the 1970s, the bridge fell into serious disrepair, landing it on Indiana's 10 Most Endangered places list in 1993. A combination of federal funds and...

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