Indiana Limestone

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,^[1] as are the Empire State Building, Biltmore Estate, and 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 and Bedford. It has been called the best 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 Period.