Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge
bridge in United States of America
The Kentucky & Indiana Bridge (K&I Bridge) is one of the first multimodal bridges to cross the Ohio River. It was designed for both railway and roadway purposes, although the roadway has been closed since 1979. The K&I Bridge connects Louisville, Kentucky, to New Albany, Indiana.
Constructed from 1881 to 1885 by the Kentucky and Indiana Bridge Company, the original K&I Bridge opened in 1886. Federal, state, and local law state that railway, streetcar, wagon-way, and pedestrian modes of travel were intended by the cities of New Albany and Louisville, the states of Kentucky and Indiana, the United States Congress, and the bridge owners. It included a single standard gauge track and two wagon ways, allowing wagons and other animal powered vehicles to cross the Ohio River by a method other than ferry for the first time. At that time, motorized vehicles were virtually nonexistent. The K&I Bridge company also owned a ferry boat operation during both the first and second bridge; eventually that operation was sold as the bridge's success largely outmoded boat usage.
Original bridge
Design
The Kentucky & Indiana Bridge, which spans the Ohio River at the Falls of the Ohio, was designed to connect the cities of New Albany, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky, and to bring their residents closer together. Citizens of New Albany and Louisville who conceived the bridge described its purpose in the Articles of Association for the Kentucky and Indiana Bridge Company filed with the recorder of Floyd County, Indiana, on March 7, 1881.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge” is bridge in United States of America. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Kentucky, Indiana and Terminal, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “bridge in United States of America” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6392162. Authority coordinates are 38.283, -85.802. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 1881, 1885 and 1886.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge primary sources, Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge archive and Kentucky research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.