Houck Covered Bridge

Houck Covered Bridge, also known historically as the Hamrick or Hutchinson Bridge, was built in 1880 by the Massillon Bridge Company of Massillon, Ohio, one of the Midwest's leading commercial bridge builders. The 210-foot, two-span Howe truss crosses Big Walnut Creek in Washington Township south of Manhattan, resting on cut-limestone abutments and a central pier nearly 13 feet tall. It takes its name from the Houck family, who owned land along the crossing, formerly known as Hutchinson Ford. The bridge served a once-important local road linking Greencastle and Manhattan until improved routes through nearby Hamrick Station reduced its traffic after 1932. In 2014, Putnam County realigned County Road 550 South to bypass the bridge, and the structure was subsequently restored and limited to pedestrian use — the only one of the county's nine covered bridges reserved exclusively for foot traffic. From the bridge deck, visitors can see the Boone-Hutcheson Cemetery on a nearby hilltop, the burial ground of relatives of frontiersman Daniel Boone. Houck Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in May 2024, part of the county-wide nomination covering all nine of Putnam County's surviving covered bridges.