Where cars no longer go

First published 6 October 2008. We all have our hobbies. Some people follow pro football, some run, some make lovely quilts, some fish, some solve the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. I like to explore abandoned roads. Yeah, that’s a great conversation starter at parties. I’m not sure where this vigor comes from. All I know is that the first time I found a stretch of forgotten asphalt was the coolest thing I’d ever experienced. Here’s a photo from that day, of a bridge over White Lick Creek on former US 40 west of Plainfield, Indiana. (Here it is on Google Maps.) A new bridge was built when the highway was straightened and widened to four lanes in about the 1930s. The old bridge was bypassed, and it is well hidden by trees and brush today. For 70 years, vehicles have zoomed by on four divided lanes of US 40 a hundred feet away while nature has slowly reclaimed this space. It’s also common for bridges to be removed when a road is abandoned. Here’s a shot of abandoned State Road…