Bridge Designer Conde McCullough Subject of Lecture Wednesday

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 3rd, at 6:30 p.m. in Loucks Auditorium Robert Hadlow, Senior Historian with ODOT, and author of Elegant Arches, Soaring Spans, will give a lecture on bridge designer Conde McCullough.

McCullough's bridges on the coast, including the one in Newport over Yaquina Bay, highlight his career, but he lived in Salem for a chunk of his life, and many much more modest bridges are thought to have been designed under his guidance.

You may recall the Commercial Street bridge by the Civic Center, whose plans he checked, but who did not seem to be responsible for the design.

Currently neighborhood advocates are researching the Church Street bridge over Pringle Creek and Shelton Ditch.

It has many original lanterns that need repair, and preliminary research suggests it could be more closely associated with McCullough, especially as he lived just a block away.

Lanterns on Church Street Bridge

(You may also have seen the stone artifacts on the gravel bed below!)

Just how close McCullough was to the design of Salem's bridges in the 20s and 30s still remains a matter of conjecture, but the coast bridges that are indisputably his are magnificent.

There's a lot of talk about bridges these days, some of it contentious, but here's an opportunity for delight and maybe even a little wonder.  So check out the lecture!