Parke County Covered Bridge Named National Historic Landmark

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A western Indiana covered bridge is now a National Historic Landmark.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced the designation for the West Union Bridge in Parke County and 23 other National Historic Landmarks on Wednesday.

The Interior Department says the span over Sugar Creek is an outstanding example of the Burr truss type of timber bridges. It was built in 1876 by J. J. Daniels, one of the nation's most prolific covered bridge builders and is one of the most visually impressive and structurally intact of approximately 180 surviving Burr truss covered bridges in the U.S.

The bridge joined a list of sites Wednesday that also included naming the Soldiers and Sailors Monument as an expansion of the Indiana World War Memorials Historic District, which includes the already-designated World War Memorial Plaza to the north in downtown Indianapolis.