Tulip Trestle (The Viaduct of Greene County Indiana)

          On a lovely sunny Saturday morning, my husband and I headed to Greene County Indiana to search out the "viaduct". I had heard of the viaduct since I was a little girl, but had never experienced seeing it. To clarify, a viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans for crossing a valley or a gorge. The viaduct I wanted to see was a valley crossing for trains. This viaduct was named Tulip Trestle (or officially Bridge X75-6) and is the third longest of its type. It crosses the Richland Creek Valley in Northeastern Greene County in Indiana. Tulip Trestle was completed in 1906. Construction was done mostly by Italian immigrants working for $0.15 to $0.30 per hour. It is a working trestle that is 2,307 feet long and 157 feet tall. 

Finding the trestle takes some investigative work, if you choose to not use the internet or Google maps for directions! There is more than one way to get to the viaduct and locals can give you directions, which seem confusing and just a little questionable as you snake your way along the country roads and switchbacks. As you motor along, checking  your written directions, comparing them to the needle on your compass, the black-topped country road ends leaving you to begin travelling on a narrow gravel country road. Just about the time you begin thinking that you are lost, and in the beginnings of panic you check your cell phone for service, the viaduct emerges on the horizon. 

Okay, it's huge. Tall. Long. Your imagination paints a picture of a train going on the tracks that are suspended above the girders. And you wish with all your might, that you would be lucky enough to hear the whistle of an approaching train. You envision hundreds of laborers, the deafening banging and clanging of construction that took place over one hundred years ago as the viaduct was being born. 

But, this morning no train approaches. No construction noise; just the viaduct standing stately and strong, representing a moment of history--past and present. 

My next goal with Tulip Trestle, to be there when a train is chugging its way along the viaduct, suspended high up in the sky......