Moving? The Sanatorium Bridge may be moved from its location near the Lee Allan Bryant health care facility on private property to a county road if $780,000 in federal funds are obtained through the National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program. -- Photo by Jim Avelis

The Sanatorium Bridge, one of Parke County's famous old wooden spans, might be moved from Lee Allan Bryant health care facility on private property to a county road if $780,000 in federal funds are obtained through the National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program.

The total cost for restoring and moving the bridge from its present site about two miles northeast of its present location is $976,203, said Anne Lynk, executive secretary of Parke County Inc., the organization that coordinates the Covered Bridge Festival.

"The Hine family, owners of Lee Allan Bryant health care facility, the site of the former Sanatorium, donated the bridge to the county and allowed us right-of-way to get to the bridge to stabilize it," she said. "I was told 100 applications for bridge funding went to the state. The applications are reviewed by the state, and some are sent on the Federal Highway Administration for final selection. Ours was number two in the applications that went on to the federal government."

Each custom-built old wooden span is unique. This particular structure built in 1913 over Little Raccoon Creek is the only one in the county with lightening rods.

Coal hauled from mines in Nyesville about two miles away had to be transported more than six miles to the State Sanatorium, a tuberculosis hospital, because there was no direct route from the coal fields to the hospital's power plant without crossing the stream.

Parke County officials plan to move the 87-year-old timber span to the original site of the Adams Bridge, which is one mile north of Lee Allen Bryant and east of Nyesville on County Road 50 North.

Flood waters in 1969 destroyed the 154-foot-long Adams Bridge, which was built over the creek in 1907 by Jefferson P. Van Fossen. The Jessup Bridge was jacked up on two sets of multi-wheeled dollies and moved to the Adams site in February 1970. It was destroyed in 1989 when strong winds caused a large tree to fall on it, breaking its arches.

The bridge collapsed, floated under the Sanatorium Bridge and over the U.S. 36 bridge at Plank Road before jamming downstream.

The Sanatorium Bridge, one of 32 jewels in Parke County's tourism crown and one of the rare and historic structures that brings more than 2 million people to the Covered Bridge Festival every year, has been tucked away in a remote area since it was built. Only if you visited the Sanatorium or spent time walking the grounds at Lee Allen Bryant could this old relic be viewed.

This acquisition is a valuable asset because Parke County's only claim to fame is covered bridges, Lynk said. She said covered bridge enthusiasts come from throughout the country and foreign lands just to see and photograph the old wooden spans.

"They want to see every bridge," she said. "This bridge is not on the bridge tour routes."

Once in place, the Sanatorium Bridge is expected to attract thousands of tourists, while it also will serve as a foot bridge for Amish children who will cross it to reach their school on the opposite side of the stream, said William Jeffers, Parke County commissioner.

"Our engineer told us it's a perfect fit for the abutments at the site where the other bridge used to be," he said. "We want to get it to a location where people can look at it. It is too nice of a bridge to be hidden."