HISTORIC HIGHWAY BRIDGES OF OREGON

Rogue River Bridge (1931), Oregon Coast Highway, Gold Beach, Curry County

The historic highway bridges study was a comprehensive inventory and evaluation of the highway bridges in Oregon. The 145 significant structures distributed throughout the state represent the best in Oregon's bridge-building tradition, combining the 68 study-identified bridges and the 77 highway bridges previously determined eligible for or listed on the National Register.

Identifying the National Register-eligible highway bridges is a major step toward resolving the conflicting interests of modern transportation needs and historic preservation. Because of their historic importance, these bridges will require special planning considerations in accordance with federal and state historic preservation laws and regulations, if and when replacement or major rehabilitation is proposed. Their National Register eligibility identifies them as worthy of preservation, even if it may not always be possible or desirable to save every bridge. The historic bridges study provides information on the historically-significant structures and allows better planning and development of projects. Of the approximate 7,000 highway bridges in the state, only about two percent are of historic significance. The remainder, the vast majority of Oregon's highway bridges, are non-historic and can undergo normal replacement planning as required.

The historic highway bridges study provides useful data for the development of an ODOT bridge preservation priority plan. The preservation priority plan will address the complex issues relating to the costs and feasibility of preserving specific historic bridges.

Every effort was made in the study to identify all highway bridges in the state with historic significance, but additional bridges may be identified in the future and added to the list of National Register-eligible bridges. Several bridges were discovered during field inspections that were not listed on the ODOT's computerized list. These bridges were incorporated into the study. Other bridges may, likewise, be discovered in the future and will need to be evaluated for their historic significance.

For the most part, the study-identified bridges were evaluated as individually significant at the statewide level and not as components in other thematic groups of bridges. The study bridges were not considered as components of nontransportation historic districts, ensembles, or groupings. National Register nominations or requests for a determination of eligibility may be developed that include bridges which are not distinguished in themselves, but contribute thematically or historically to other properties. Consequently, additional highway bridges may be defined as National Register eligible in the future, although the number is not expected to be large.

The Department of Transportation will periodically update the study. This will include a reevaluation of the historic importance of the reserve bridges, as historic and other early non-historic bridges are lost, reducing the number of certain types of bridges. The update will also provide an opportunity to identify bridges which are locally significant or included in thematic groups or historic districts of nonengineering or transportation resources.

FIGURE 24. The Coquille River Bridge (1922) at Coquille, shown in this early photograph, is a remaining example of a large swing span in Oregon. Once a common moveable type across Oregon's navigable waterways, the swing span is now an obsolete form. Although being replaced by a new bridge downstream, the old Coquille River Bridge will be retained and maintained for pedestrian use by the Oregon Department of Transportation.

There are many things that make up the fabric of our history, and some things are more fundamental than others. One of the oldest engineering works devised by man, bridges are basic to our civilization. The majority of our bridges in Oregon are merely "work horses"—essential, utilitarian and not usually appreciated (unless they are not there). But, like all elements in the built environment, bridges also bear the imprint of creativity and exhibit the same range and development as other products of our culture.

Bridge architecture and engineering occasionally go beyond the strictly utilitarian into the magnificent and sublime, and become works of art. It is hoped that many of the bridges in this report fit into that category. The history of bridge building is rich in tradition and innovation, as new needs, materials, and technologies helped develop longer, lighter, more efficient structures—the same goal toward which today's engineers also strive.

There has always been an interest in bridges and their preservation, especially for some types of bridges. Until lately that interest usually centered only on the small and the picturesque (covered bridges) and the very large and aesthetic (suspension bridges). Public interest is now beginning to encompass the middle range of bridges, too.

Because of increased federal and state appropriations for bridge replacements and a nationwide concern for improvement of bridges, the rapid destruction of bridges is a critical historic preservation issue. Unfortunately, bridges pose difficult problems in preservation because of their importance in modern transportation systems, safety, costs of maintenance. It is through studies like this in Oregon and across the nation that the magnitude of the historic resource will be made known. The future for bridge preservation now depends on new legislation and sources of funding to encourage the rehabilitation and continued use of historic bridges and the discovery of new and creative adaptive liability, the lack of feasible adaptive reuses, and the reuses for bridges.

It is hoped that many of Oregon's historic bridges will be preserved for future generations to appreciate and study. It would be a sad situation indeed if, through the lack of foresight, the historic bridges were lost and existed only in documents and memories.

FIGURE 25. The Old Rhinehart Bridge (1922) across the Grande Ronde River in Union County is bypassed and abandoned-in-place, one of many methods for preserving historic bridges in Oregon.