The Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport, Oregon’s crown jewel of socialism,* opened to traffic on Sunday, September 6, 1936 (The Sunday Oregonian, 6 September 1936).
Although almost two months’ work remains to be done on the project, the Yaquina bay bridge will open for traffic Sunday at 8 A. M. More than two years under construction, this span is the last of five to be completed which were designed to eliminate ferries along the Oregon coast highways.
The other bridges, all paid for with a 1934 $5,102,620 Works Progress Administration grant, were the Alsea Bay, Siuslaw River, Umpqua River, and Coos Bay bridges. All the bridges, and several more throughout the state, were designed primarily by Conde B. McCullough, who served as the state bridge engineer from 1919 to 1935. After his death in 1946, the Coos Bay Bridge was renamed Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge.
* So declares Matt Love in his fantastic Love and the Green Lady: Meditations on the Yaquina Bay Bridge: Oregon’s Crown Jewel of Socialism
Leave a Reply