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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 7, 2018
Why are bridges green? The story starts in Oregon
Bridges are
painted the
same shade
By ERIN ROSS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Drive across Oregon and
it’s hard not to notice that many
of the state’s steel bridges —
from the foggy coast to high
desert — are the same shade
of sage green. It’s so ubiqui-
tous that the paint’s manufac-
turer calls it “ODOT Green”
after the Oregon Department of
Transportation.
But ODOT Green — a color
that started a national phenom-
enon — is a color that almost
didn’t happen: Oregon’s first
green-painted bridge, the St.
Johns, was initially supposed
to be striped black and yellow
like a bumblebee.
It wasn’t. But green bridges
began there, with the St. Johns
and the two men who competed
to build it: David B. Steinman
and Conde McCullough.
Both were bridge engineers
who believed firmly in the aes-
thetic possibilities of bridges,
and both were self-made men
who rose from poverty to
national prominence. But that’s
where the similarities end.
Steinman saw himself as
a visionary poet and artist.
McCullough was a quiet intel-
lectual whose curiosity led
him to pursue a law degree by
attending night classes.
Steinman was a prolific
author who alienated his col-
leagues by publishing self-pro-
moting autobiographical arti-
cles in engineering journals.
McCullough, on the other
hand, wrote practical books
on engineering and econom-
ics. Much of what we know
about him comes from oral
history interviews done by
ODOT’s senior historian, Rob-
ert Hadlow. Hadlow describes
McCullough as a clever man
with a quiet sense of humor,
who he’d “enjoy a conversa-
tion with.”
The two men submitted
their contracts in 1928 for the
St. Johns Bridge, which would
span the Willamette River and
connect northeast and north-
west Portland. The selec-
tion process was controver-
sial: Some wanted the bridge
to be designed by a local like
McCullough. Others wanted
someone with a national
reputation.
Ultimately, a commit-
tee chose Steinman. He was
inspired by the hills and ever-
greens that surrounded Port-
land and wanted the bridge to
Alan Sylvestre/Oregon Public Broadcasting
The Astoria Bridge, designed by Conde McCullough, stretches 4.1 miles between Oregon and Washington state.
‘I’m not sure there’s a
rational reason for using the
color, other than that we’ve
always done it that way.’
Ray Bottenberg,
ODOT’s bridge preservation managing engineer
match. The suspension-style
that he ultimately chose
included soaring Gothic arches
topped with copper spires,
which were intended to com-
plement the “evergreen spires”
on the trees around it. Steinman
considered the bridge to be a
work of art.
But representatives for
the nearby airfield were wor-
ried they’d crash into it. They
wanted it painted black with
yellow stripes.
Steinman wouldn’t have it,
and neither would the Mult-
nomah County commission.
On March 17, 1931 (St. Pat-
rick’s Day, appropriately) it
was announced that the St
Johns Bridge would be painted
the redundantly-named “verde
green.” The decision to do so
was fairly radical: at the time,
almost all bridges were painted
black or gray. There may have
only been one other color-
ful bridge in the country at the
time — the Steinman-designed
Mount Hope Bridge in Rhode
Island, which was also green.
Steinman loved the St.
Johns Bridge, and said it was
his favorite. “My best poem,”
he told his biographer William
Ratigan, “a prayer in steel.”
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The St. Johns Bridge was designed by David Steinman
and completed in 1931. Today, the bridge is painted ODOT
Green, but it was initially supposed to be black with yel-
low stripes.
An award
small problem: the bridge
was painted black. But the
image McCullough’s illustra-
tor submitted to the contest
showed the bridge tinted green.
McCullough had to make sure
that the bridge matched the
illustration before he could
receive the award.
Thankfully, McCullough
was “the boss of the bridge unit
at the time,” according to Ray
Bottenberg, ODOT’s bridge
preservation managing engi-
neer, “so he probably just said
‘go buy some green paint’ and
sent a crew out there.”
By the time the plaque
arrived, the bridge was what
we now know as ODOT Green.
The John McLoughlin Bridge
is still that color today.
McCullough went on to
construct dozens more steel
bridges across the state. And all
While the St. Johns Bridge
was the state’s first green-
painted bridge, it’s not where
ODOT Green started. That spe-
cific shade of green, it seems,
was McCullough’s doing, and
first appeared in 1933 on the
John McLoughlin Bridge.
The John McLoughlin
Bridge carries Highway 99E
across the Clackamas River,
connecting Oregon City to
Gladstone.
“From an engineering per-
spective, it really is an ele-
gant bridge,” Hadlow said.
And the American Institute for
Steel Construction recognized
that — there’s a plaque on the
bridge declaring it “the most
beautiful bridge of its class.”
When it was announced
that McCullough’s bridge
won, though, there was a
were painted that color.
His most famous bridges
line the Oregon Coast. He
envisioned U.S. Highway 101
— which follows the shore and
is dotted with scenic overlooks
and waysides — as a neck-
lace of pearls. He wanted his
bridges to serve as the clasps
that complemented the state’s
natural beauty without upstag-
ing it.
Iconic
Today, those ODOT Green
bridges are iconic. The Yaquina
Bay Bridge is widely consid-
ered to be one of McCullough’s
best and is an Oregon landmark.
“It’s well executed, and it
fits the location so well,” Had-
low said.
McCullough
clearly
thought that the color comple-
mented the entire state, and not
just the water-logged region
west of the Cascades. The
Crooked River High Bridge
in central Oregon’s Jefferson
County, among others, wears
the color as well.
McCullough spread the
ODOT Green across Oregon,
while Steinman spread other
greens across the country. All
of his future bridges would be
one or more shades of green.
Steinman would even go so
far as to claim that he invented
the concept of painting bridges
with colors.
“The success of my inno-
vation is attested by its wide-
spread adoption by various
state highway departments,
also by its adoption for park-
way spans and public author-
ity bridges in New York City,”
Steinman later wrote.
It’s unclear, though, to
what extent Steinman can
truly take credit for the popu-
larity of green bridges. He and
McCullough were contempo-
raries and their bridges were
studied closely and copied by
their colleagues.
And it’s McCullough’s
color that reigns supreme
today: Technically, the paint
is “federal standard 595 color
24272,” but nobody calls it
that. From New Hampshire to
Washington and even Canada,
uncoated steel structures are
painted ODOT Green. And as
of its most recent paint job, the
St. Johns Bridge is, too (pour
one out for “verde green”).
ODOT still coats old steel
structures with this paint. “I’m
not sure there’s a rational rea-
son for using the color, other
than that we’ve always done
it that way,” Bottenberg said.
“No one’s really questioned
that they were green. I don’t
think it’s more complicated
than that.”
ODOT Green is well-suited
to the Northwest: its special
coating cures best in damp
weather. In a place like Ari-
zona, the paint would never
dry.
But the color is notice-
ably absent on Oregon’s newer
bridges.
“Nowadays we favor con-
crete bridges, because you
don’t have to paint them” Bot-
tenberg said. And when new
steel bridges are constructed,
they’re made out of weath-
ering steel, which develops a
protective red-rust coating and
doesn’t need to be painted.
Paint, according to Botten-
berg, is as much for mainte-
nance as aesthetics. And if it’s
not necessary, it’s not used.
But Bottenberg, for one, is
fond of ODOT Green. “It kind
of fits Oregon’s mentality.”
Mountain goats in Olympic Mountains
could soon be relocated or killed
By COURTNEY FLATT
Northwest Public
Broadcasting
Mountain goats in the
Olympic Mountains could
soon be a thing of the past.
The non-native goat popula-
tion has rapidly grown over
the past 14 years — to a point
where it now could put hikers
at risk and damage sensitive
vegetation in the subalpine
landscape.
Federal and state agencies
announced Friday their plan
to relocate most of the moun-
tain goats from Washington’s
Olympic National Park to the
North Cascades forests, where
they have lived for thousands
of years. They would “lethally
remove” the remaining goats
in the park.
Mountain
goats
are
attracted to salt sources, which
naturally occur in the North
Cascades. In the Olympic
National Park, the only salt
sources are humans.
“We see them approach-
ing people because they are
attracted to salt in sweat and
urine and food,” said Penny
Wagner, spokeswoman for
Olympic National Park.
“These can create dangerous
interactions if people don’t
realize that mountain goats
are going to be approaching
them.”
In 2010, a hiker was killed
in the park, but officials said
that was not yet a cause for
concern.
The Methow Valley News
reports that biologists wouldn’t
relocate any goats that are too
used to people.
It’s not just the goats’
interactions with people that
prompted the plan to remove
them from the Olympics.
“We also have to pre-
serve the wilderness char-
acter and the unique vegeta-
tion,” Wagner said, referring to
the goats’ tendency to wallow
near unique vegetation in the
Olympic Mountains.
In 2016, biologists found
mountain goat numbers in
the Olympic Mountains had
increased by 8 percent each
year since 2004. Now, there
are 625 goats — and those
numbers could approach 1,000
by 2023.
Tim Josi: The Right Priorities
Healthcare is a Right
WANTED
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Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Reduce K-12 Class Sizes
Expand Vocational Career Training
Build More Affordable Housing
Experience That Matters
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TIMBERLANDS
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Graduation
To honor and congratulate the Class of 2018
The Daily Astorian is creating a graduation publication for our local high schools that will
publish on Wednesday, May 30th. This full-color publication will include biographies and
pictures of each valedictorian and salutatorian,
The graduation schedule is as follows:
name and photo of each 2018 graduate and
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Saturday, June 2 @ 2pm
family and friends.
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All recreational
activities on Lewis
& Clark Timberlands
Oregon will require
a no fee recreational
permit effective
June 1, 2018
To acquire a permit (available 5/21/18): Go
online to greenwoodresources.com and click
on Recreation Access, or Scan the QR code
using your smartphone at one of our access
gate signs. Call 503.755.6655 for recorded
information.
Our goal is to provide a quality recreational
experience while improving communications
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