Dunbar Covered Bridge

Dunbar Covered Bridge, built in 1880, carries Dunbar Road over Big Walnut Creek about a mile northwest of Greencastle, making it the closest of Putnam County's nine covered bridges to the county seat. It is a two-span Burr Arch truss, 174 feet long and roughly 16 feet wide, distinguished by an unusual arrangement of open-air "windows" cut into its siding for ventilation. Local tradition holds that the bridge was built by farmers using timber cut on the Dunbar farm, and while the name J.J. Daniels once appeared on its timbers, some historians instead credit builder J.A. Britton, since two-span bridges were atypical of Britton's usual single-span work. The bridge rests on cut stone abutments and a central pier and was rehabilitated in 2010, with additional structural repairs made in spring 2023 after inspections found deteriorating beams. Putnam County has explored a rehabilitation-and-bypass project for Dunbar Bridge, though a 2023-2024 application for federal funding was unsuccessful. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 2024 as part of the county-wide nomination of all nine covered bridges, and continues to carry local vehicular traffic.