In Indiana, Parke County's bridges are covered in nostalgia.(Chicago Tribune)

ROCKVILLE, Ind. _ "A brief darkness leading from light"

American Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used these words to describe a covered bridge. It might now be called, a time tunnel to the nation's past.

The main happening in Parke County, Ind., is the annual Covered Bridge Festival, which has blossomed into Indiana's largest festival, with the Indy 500 not included.

Noting its 45th anniversary this year, the 10-day festival, which begins the second Friday in October, has grown to approximately 2 million visitors, according to Anne Link of the Parke County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The headquarters town of Rockville has the town square surrounded by huge tents filled with crafters and food services. The highlight of the festival, however, is the 32 covered bridges in Parke County that date back to 1856.

Featured are the towns of Rockville, Mansfield, Bridgeton and Billie Creek that explode with folks shopping and eating among the hundreds of handicrafts and homemade food: ham and beans cooked in large kettles, homemade sausage, cider, paw-paws, fresh baked bread, persimmon pudding, apple butter, maple syrup, smoked ham, crullers, ice cream, hot biscuits, barbecued chicken, sorghum, bittersweet, black walnuts and other unusual delights.

The covered bridges of America have been a tribute to man's technical ingenuity, built out of need, and they leave behind a permanent monument to a short-lived art form. This bit of vanishing Americana is annually saluted, admired, sketched, painted and photographed.