April 7, 2020

While McCullough's work as a bridge engineer for the State of Oregon is most recognized on the Coast Highway, today's US 101, his first work was on the later bridges, mostly on the eastern end, of the Columbia River Highway.

Wikipedia: Conde B. McCullough

Conde Balcom McCullough (May 30, 1887 – May 5, 1946) was an American civil engineer who is primarily known for designing many of Oregon's coastal bridges on U.S. Route 101.^[1] The native of South Dakota worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation from 1919 to 1935 and 1937 until 1946. McCullough also was a professor at Oregon State University.

Conde McCullough was born in Redfield, South Dakota, on May 30, 1887.^[2] In 1891, he and his family moved to Iowa where his father died in 1904.^[2] McCullough then worked at various jobs to support the family.^[2] In 1910, he graduated from Iowa State University with a civil engineering degree.^[3]

McCullough began working for the Marsh Bridge Company in Des Moines, Iowa, where he remained for one year.^[2] He then went to work for the Iowa State Highway Commission.^[2] He moved to Oregon in 1916 and became an assistant professor of civil engineering at Oregon Agricultural College, and the sole structural engineering professor at the school.^[2] In 1919 he became the head of the Bridge Division of the Oregon Department of Transportation, making him personally responsible for the design of Oregon's bridges at a time when the state was completing Highway 101.

His designs are well known for their architectural beauty.^[4] McCullough advocated that bridges be built economically, efficiently, and with beauty.^[1] He helped design over 600 bridges, many with architectural details such as Gothic spires, art deco obelisks, and Romanesque arches incorporated into the bridges.^[5] In 1928, he graduated from Willamette University College of Law and passed the bar the same year.^[6] In 1935 he moved to San José, Costa Rica to help design bridges on the Pan-American Highway. He returned to Oregon in 1937 to become the assistant state highway engineer.

In 1934 McCullough was granted an honorary doctorate from Oregon State University.^[6] He published The Engineer at Law with his son John McCullough who also was an attorney.^[6] McCullough died of a stroke at his home on May 5, 1946. After his death the state renamed the Coos Bay Bridge the Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge.

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