This Beloved Illinois Covered Bridge Was Damaged By A Semi
By Linze Rice|Published November 30, 2023
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Linze Rice
Author
Ope! From the rural cornfields of DeKalb County, Linze is an Illinois native and true Midwestern gal who can make a mean bonfire and whip up a perfect marshmallow salad. Since 2014, her bylines and photography have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Magazine, Chicago Sun-Times, and Block Club Chicago/DNAinfo Chicago, Only in Your State, and more. She has interviewed Dolly Parton, written about beloved diners along historic Route 66, visited the last Rainforest Cafe in the Illinois, and reviewed luxurious English manor-inspired hotels. Whether it's writing about a local gem or world-renowned establishment, Linze brings a heartwarming and historical perspective to each story, using facts, wit, and personal experience to impress upon readers the importance of culture, food, travel, and all things local. Her favorite destinations in Illinois include Starved Rock State Park, Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood, the charming small town of Sycamore, and historic Rosehill Cemetery. When she's not writing or photographing, Linze enjoys gardening, spending time with her husband and pets, cooking, baking, and grilling, and relaxing with trashy TV.
I’m a sucker for local history, so I constantly thank my lucky stars that Illinois is full of incredible historical landmarks and historic sites. Many of our small towns do a fantastic job of preserving, restoring, and maintaining these places so the public can still enjoy and learn from them. So I was especially saddened when I learned that just recently the antique red-covered bridge in Princeton, Illinois was the victim of a truck crash, putting the historic landmark’s future in peril.
One of the last covered bridges in Illinois was hit by a semi-truck on Thanksgiving morning — destroying the beloved historical landmark. The red covered bridge in Princeton was built around 1863 and was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1975.
"The emotions we've all experienced at the sight of the old bridge in such a state of disrepair proves that historic buildings and landmarks are crucial to a community — they carry the imprint of the people who built it and the lives lived around it," the Bureau County Historical Society and History Center wrote on its Facebook page. "They tell us a bit of who we are and where we've been. This bridge is a memory keeper, preserving all the special moments we've spent in its shadow, and it is a landmark calling us home again."
An astonishing "160 years have passed since this bridge was first built, and a lot has happened here," the group added. "Picnics, homecoming photos, marriage proposals, and simple Sunday drives when the leaves have turned or when the creek flows fast beneath it in spring, all have drawn us to this bridge."
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The bridge was one of only five covered bridges that could still withstand vehicles driving on them. However, that all came to an end around 7:30 a.m. Nov. 23 when a semi-truck from Alabama crashed into it, causing severe damage throughout, WQAD 8 News reported.
It's still unclear what the fate of the bridge will be — whether there will be a way to restore it, or ultimately tear it down completely. Prior to the crash, it was a historic rite of passage to drive through, as shown here.
In the meantime, those who have admired it mourn its injuries on social media — still are still hopeful it can be brought back to life.
"Rebuild her, put up protection so it doesn’t happen again (should have been done when the last truck hit) and leave her for the next generations to enjoy," one social media user wrote on the historical society's page.
