Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge

Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge
Carries	2 lanes of U.S. Route 101
Crosses	Rogue River
Locale	Gold Beach, Oregon to Wedderburn, Oregon
Maintained by	State of Oregon
ID number	01172 009 32764
Design	Concrete arch-deck
Total length	578.5 m (1898 ft)
Width	8.2 m (59.1 ft)
Longest span	70 m (230 ft), 7 spans
Opened	May 28, 1932
Daily traffic	6200
Coordinates	42.4272°N 124.4133°W / 42.4272; -124.4133

The Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge, also known as the Rogue River Bridge and the Isaac Lee Patterson Memorial Bridge, is a concrete arch bridge that spans the Rogue River in Curry County, Oregon. The bridge carries U.S. Route 101 across the river, near the point where the river empties into the Pacific Ocean, and connects the towns of Gold Beach and Wedderburn.

The bridge is 578.5 m (1,898 ft) long and consists of seven 70 m (230 ft) spans. It was dedicated on May 28, 1932 and named after Isaac Lee Patterson, the governor of Oregon from 1927 to 1929.

A bridge with strong Art Deco influences, the Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge is a prominent example of the designs of the Oregon bridge designer and highway engineer Conde McCullough. It was designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1982.

McCullough employed a new method of concrete arch construction named the Freyssinet method, named after the French bridge engineer Eugene Freyssinet. This method uses precompressed arches which pemitted the use of smaller arch ribs, thereby reducing the weight and cost of the bridge. McCullough's design was the first usage of this technique in the United States.

Further reading

• Hadlow, Robert W. (1990). "Oregon's Isaac Lee Patterson Memorial Bridge: The First Use of the Freyssinet Method of Concrete Arch Construction in the United States, 1932". IA, The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology 16 (2): 3-14. JSTOR 40968836. 

External links

• Rogue River Bridge at Structurae