Norris Ford Covered Bridge

Norris Ford Covered Bridge crosses the Big Flat Rock River (also referred to locally as Big Flat Rock Creek) on County Road 150N northeast of Rushville, in Rushville Township, Rush County. Built in 1916, it was constructed by Emmett L. Kennedy together with his sons Karl and Charles — making it the next-to-last covered bridge raised by the three-generation Kennedy family firm and the youngest of Rush County's surviving Kennedy spans. Its Burr Arch truss carries rounded arch portals typical of the firm's work, but by 1916 the ornamental scrollwork and brackets that decorated the family's earlier bridges, including the nearby Forsythe and Smith bridges, had fallen out of fashion and were omitted here, giving Norris Ford a plainer, more utilitarian appearance than its older Rush County siblings. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 2, 1983, as part of the "A.M. Kennedy House and Covered Bridges of Rush County" multiple-property submission. It remains standing over the river today and continues to be documented and photographed as one of Rush County's four surviving historic covered bridges.