Dick Huffman Covered Bridge

The Dick Huffman Covered Bridge, built around 1880, spans Big Walnut Creek south of Reelsville in southwestern Putnam County and, at 265 feet, is both the longest covered bridge in the county and the longest Howe truss covered bridge in Indiana. Its two-span Howe truss design uses diagonal timber X-bracing paired with iron tension rods at each connection point, a construction method patented by William Howe in 1840 that was among the first to combine wood and metal in bridge trusses. The bridge was originally known as the Webster (or Wekty) Bridge, after a nearby mill, before later taking the name of the Huffman family, longtime landowners along Mill Creek. Along with the nearby Houck Bridge, it is one of the three oldest covered bridges surviving in Putnam County. By 2023, deterioration had left the Dick Huffman Bridge in need of more extensive structural repair than most of the county's other covered bridges, and it was closed to traffic that March pending rehabilitation. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 2024 along with Putnam County's eight other historic covered bridges, and county officials have since worked to secure funding for its restoration.