The old one-lane bridge adds rattles and an occasional muted thump to the fresh air and bird songs along its portion of the St. Mary's River. The setting is suddenly rural.
The Hale Avenue Bridge, built in 1882 by the Morse Bridge Company of Youngstown, O., sits in the city's near west side, between Juliette and Pauline streets. Just to the east is the old gas works that now serves as the Northern Indiana Public Service Company's service yard.
The Hale Avenue Bridge, still sporting the names of its commissioners, Tim Hogan, Francis Gladio and Jacob Goeglein, is the sort of place people love to keep as their own secret. This bridge, which is flanked by a footbridge, is not so famous as the frilly bridge once called the Bloomingdale bridge, now know as the Wells Street Bridge.
