It happened again.
On Wednesday night, someone got their vehicle stuck in the Robert Parker Coffin Bridge, Long Grove’s iconic, historic and steel-reinforced covered bridge that has developed a reputation for catching distracted truck drivers.
According to an online tracker, the bridge has seen 71 accidents since 2018. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said the bridge crashes have become so common that it no longer tracks them extensively, unless there are injuries or catastrophic damage to the span.
Photos online indicate the driver of a truck, owned by a solar energy company, attempted to drive through the bridge heading west when it became stuck. Both ends of the bridge have signs listing its height limit, and various other warning signs pepper the road leading up to the historic structure.
After a devastating collision in 2018, the bridge’s cover was renovated and now features a steel frame, meaning that although the crashes often cause a buzz online and around the village, damage is largely cosmetic at worst.
Long Grove Historical Society historian Aaron Underwood said last year during a lull in bridge crashes that such incidents often happen in bursts, usually after the bridge’s “local traffic” designation is lost during updates to navigation apps.
While such incidents keep the bridge in the news, Underwood said it is more than just the victim of unaware drivers, it is the symbol of Long Grove and the “town mascot.”
Local legacy
The bridge was originally built in 1906 across Buffalo Creek as a “less messy way” to get to the church, Underwood said, replacing an old wooden bridge that had required lots of upkeep.
It gained its now iconic cover in the 1970s, installed to protect the bridge both from weather and overly large vehicles, he said. Although built out of metal, the bridge was meant for horses and buggies, and underneath the wood cover, it’s largely unchanged from the 1900s.
The bridge eventually gained a reputation for being the victim of periodic vehicle strikes, frequent enough that a local merchant who owned a store nearby kept buckets of paint and some repair supplies handy at the back of his shop.
The 2018 crash saw a truck nearly take “the whole cover off,” Underwood said, but the accident proved to be a blessing in disguise, with the insurance settlement helping fund restoration work on the ageing bridge.
The strikes returned soon after the bridge was reopened and continue today as motorists fail to heed the warnings on “plenty” of signs along the road, Village President Bill Jacob said in April.
“When you hear the stories, you just sit there, and you go, ‘Unbelievable,’” Jacob said. “You know: ‘I was in a hurry.’ ‘I was hungry.’ ‘I wanted to get to the other side.’ Whatever it is, and they try to sneak through and, of course, they can’t.”
Underwood said local officials are often asked why Long Grove doesn’t install a “headache bar” that trucks would strike before getting onto the bridge. He argued that there is no space to properly install it in a spot where a truck could then turn around.
That’s not to say there isn’t a steel bar causing headaches for truck drivers. The steel frame included in the renovation absorbs impacts, and the bridge cover has remained largely unharmed.
While he feels the focus on the crashes misses some of the depth to the bridge’s history, Underwood said he understands the curiosity, even if it was “unproductive.” For him, the bridge is something “magical,” leaving behind suburbia through “this little time portal.”
“If you’ve never driven across it, it’s one of those things that’s sometimes hard to put into words,” he said. “When your car goes across it, you get that kind of clackity rumble going across those wooden beams, and then you emerge (and) you’re looking at all of these buildings that are all styles from a hundred-plus years ago.”
Jacob said the bridge is part of the community’s history and is important to preserve, drawing in tourists and bringing a charm and uniqueness to the village.
