2025’s Top Five U.S. Bridges
Brian Brenner, P.E., F.ASCE, professor of the practice at Tufts University and a principal engineer with Tighe & Bond in Westwood, Massachusetts, shared some thoughts each month about life as a civil engineer, considering bridge engineering from a unique, often comical point of view, is his collections of essays, Don’t Throw This Away!, Bridginess, and Too Much Information, published by ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Press.
According to the ASCE, number five on this list is the Yaquina Bay Bridge, Newport, Oregon.
The Oregon coast has a series of spectacular bridges constructed in the 1930s. Many designs were led by Conde McCullough, chief bridge engineer of the Oregon Highway Department from 1919 to 1935. His first assignments included design work on US Highway 101, the main coastal road along the Pacific Ocean. The bridges provided continuity across coastal bays and rivers for a continuous coastal highway. The designs are beautiful and have distinctive features like gothic spires and latticework.
McCullough’s work includes a large cantilever truss bridge crossing Coos Bay. Most bridges of this type are utilitarian and industrial-looking. McCullough’s version, posthumously named the Conde B. McCullough Memorial Bridge, features curving bottom chords instead of the usual flat lines. The bridge also has decorative portal spires and angles on the towers. The approaches to the main span feature a series of concrete deck arches.
