State Road 37 from Indianapolis to Bloomington |
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At the Marion-Johnson county lineSouth of Wicker Road, current State Road 37 follows the original Bluff Road alignment for a mile or two. Just before the Marion-Johnson county line, the road swings west, away from the Bluff Road alignment, and Bluff Road reappears. This map shows where.
I turned in on County Line Road and headed north up the short segment of Bluff Road. The road narrows, the pavement ends, and somebody's gravel driveway begins. I imagine that their driveway once emptied directly onto the old two-lane SR 37.
Looking southbound toward County Line Road from this spot, it's clear that the grass has overgrown the edges on this short segment.
South of County Line Road, the road is marginally wider as the grass has been kept at bay. Also, the road was striped double yellow down the middle like a highway. An old rectangular Do Not Pass sign stood in one place where the striping went from dashed to solid. I haven't seen a Do Not Pass sign on an Indiana highway in a very long time. I wish I stopped to take a photo. The end of this alignment came 1.6 miles later. Bluff Road curved and met current SR 37, but a little tail remained.
Surprisingly, this tail was being turned into the entrance to a housing development that recently began construction. The road was freshly paved with gently sloping curbs. This photo, pointing northbound, shows Bluff Road to the north, the curve to where it meets current SR 37, the guardrail, and then the beginning of the tail.
Where the road previously ended, it curved into a typical arrangement of cul-de-sacs. Few houses stood yet. Almost dead center in this photograph, you can see a car on current SR 37.
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Created 24 May 2007. |
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