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WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ AUGUST 10, 2016 ❘
Siuslaw News
Coast Life
SECTION B
SENIOR NEWS
CALENDAR
INSIDE — 8B
E l eg a nt a t 80
PHOTO BY CHANTELLE MEYER/SIUSLAW NEWS
Architect Conde B. McCullough designed the Siuslaw River Bridge in Florence and his other bridges in the art deco style popular in the 1930s.
B Y J ACK D AVIS
Siuslaw News
N
o one watching
Rhododendron
Festival Queen Gail
Darling break a bottle of gin-
ger ale — Prohibition was
over, but Champagne was still
expensive — on the Siuslaw
River Bridge during the open-
ing day ceremony, March 31,
1936, could possibly have
imagined that 80 years later
almost 1 million cars a year
would be crossing over the
iconic span.
Judy Fleagle, author of two
books about the bridge said,
“The Siuslaw River Bridge
was the most important thing
that ever happened to
Florence. It changed every-
thing.”
Prior to the bridge, foot and
later car ferries transported
people between Florence on
the north side of the Siuslaw
River to Glenada on the south
side. The pilings near the
gazebo off Bay Street in Old
Town are the decaying rem-
nants of the old Florence ferry
dock.
In addition to having to wait
until the ferry was full before
it departed for the other side,
ferries were subject to the ele-
ments.
“The ferry was closed at
night. The ferry didn’t run if
the tide was too low. The ferry
didn’t run if the weather was
too bad,” Fleagle said.
During the middle of the
Great Depression, a visionary
civil engineer named Conde
B. McCullough proposed to
build five bridges across the
five major water obstacles
along the Oregon coast.
All five of the bridges —
McCullough Memorial Bridge
(Coos Bay), Umpqua River
Bridge (Reedsport), Siuslaw
River Bridge (Florence),
Alsea Bay Bridge (Waldport)
and Yaquina Bay Bridge
(Newport) — were construct-
ed during the same two-year
period. McCullough traveled
from bridge to bridge to over-
see the entire project.
Florence’s 1936 Queen
Rhododendra Gail Darling
christens the Siuslaw River
Bridge with a bottle of gin-
ger ale on March 31, 1936,
during the 28th year of the
Rhododendron Festival.
SIUSLAW NEWS FILE PHOTOS
Cars await the inaugural crossing of the Siuslaw River Bridge prior to the
grand opening ceremony on March 31, 1936.
concrete and reinforced steel.
Despite bitter lobbying by
McCullough designed and
Oregon’s lumber industry, the
Ironically, almost as much
built a total of 10 Oregon
U.S. Army Corps of
lumber was used in support
coast bridges between the
and scaffolding dur-
Wilson and Rogue
ing the construction
rivers. Their unique
“The Siuslaw River Bridge was the most of the five bridges
art deco architectural
important thing that ever happened to
as would have been
design attracts visi-
required to build
tors from around the
Florence. It changed everything.”
them entirely out of
world and is consid-
—JUDY FLEAGLE, LOCAL AUTHOR
timber.
ered one of Oregon’s
In all, about 1.5
signature trademarks.
Of the 10, the Siuslaw Bridge Engineers, who had final con- million lineal feet of lumber,
10,000 cubic yards of con-
trol of all coastal bridges at
is the only drawbridge.
crete and almost 1.6 million
that time, nixed the idea of
In 1936, when the 1,568-
pounds of reinforced and
foot Siuslaw River Bridge was wooden bridges. The corps
structural steel were used to
determined that the bridges
dedicated, Florence had a
build the Siuslaw Bridge.
population of 350.
would be constructed out of
Total cost of the bridge was
$527,068.67.
The bridge is currently
undergoing two upgrades:
zinc impress cathodic protec-
tion and earthquake retro-
fitting that will extend its life
expectancy for decades into
the future. The bridge is also
being made more handicap
and pedestrian accessible.
According to Fleagle, zinc
impress cathodic protection is
a recently developed process
that protects the bridge’s steel
reinforcement from being lit-
erally eaten up by a condition
that occurs when metal, like
steel, is subjected to salt
water.
“The federal government
doesn’t have the money to
replace these bridges,” Fleagle
said. “This procedure will
give the bridge decades more
life.”
Historical and statistical
information in this article is
from Fleagle’s book
“Crossings, McCullough’s
Coastal Bridges.”
People can visit the Siuslaw
River Bridge Interpretive
Center in Old Town Florence
for more information on the
bridge’s history.
Of McCullough’s 10
Oregon coast bridges,
only the Siuslaw River
Bridge is a drawbridge,
which is still operational
to this day.
CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK
In its 80th year, Siuslaw River Bridge
still has decades to go