No Destination: Boone Tunnel & Brooklyn Bridge

Travelling south/west on US-68 through Jessamine County is a beautiful, winding drive. When you reach the Kentucky River, you find a 'modern' bridge and cross the river. But if you carefully look to your left before reaching the bridge, you will see an old tunnel carved out of the Kentucky Palisades. The tunnel, Boone Tunnel, was the first tunnel in Kentucky constructed for highway traffic.

The tunnel provided access to a 250-foot iron-truss bridge that spanned the Kentucky River from 1871 until 1955. In that year, the bridge collapsed under the weight of a delivery truck and the deliveryman was badly injured. A judge awarded him $50,000, but the governor reduced the damages to $10,000 with the statement that "no man was worth $50,000."

See also: Jessamine County's Kentucky River Guidebook.