Editing Indiana Limestone (section)

{{short description|Limestone quarried in Indiana, United States}}
[[File:Indiana limestone - the nation's building stone, v. 2 - DPLA - 34ab77899a0747d1465810a8da6f02d7 (page 12).jpg|thumb|318x318px|Indiana limestone being quarried in the early 20th century.]]
[[File:P16066coll11 34741 full.jpg|thumb|Postcard of Bedford Quarries Co. in Bedford, Indiana]]
'''Indiana limestone''' (also known as '''Bedford limestone''') is a form of [[limestone]] used as a building material, particularly for monumental public structures. Some 35 of the 50 state capitol buildings in the United States are made of Indiana limestone,<ref name="limestone">{{cite web|url=http://www.limestonecountry.com/Limestone.html|title=Lawrence County Limestone History|publisher=Lawrence County, Indiana|access-date=2007-09-11|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061030001456/http://www.limestonecountry.com/Limestone.html|archive-date=2006-10-30}}</ref> as are the [[Empire State Building]], [[Biltmore Estate]], [[the Pentagon]] and [[Washington National Cathedral|National Cathedral]] in Washington, D.C..

Indiana limestone is a more common term for '''[[Salem Limestone]]''', a [[geological formation]] primarily quarried in south central [[Indiana]], USA, between the cities of [[Bloomington, Indiana|Bloomington]] and [[Bedford, Indiana|Bedford]]. It has been called the best [[quarry|quarried]] limestone in the United States. 

Indiana limestone, like all limestone, is a rock primarily formed of [[calcium carbonate]]. It was deposited over millions of years as marine fossils decomposed at the bottom of a shallow inland sea which covered most of the present-day Midwestern United States during the [[Mississippian age|Mississippian]] Period.