Rock Point Bridge - Jackson County, OR
N 42° 25.944 W 123° 05.426
10T E 492561 N 4697790
This historic bridge spanning the rogue River was once part of the Old Pacific Highway for many years.
Waymark Code: WMP0H9
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 06/04/2015
Views: 3
Rock Point Bridge is a reinforced concrete deck arch bridge and spans the Rogue River. It was engineered by Oregon's premiere bridge architect, Conde B. McCullough, in 1919-1920. The Rock Point Arch Bridge was the first reinforced-concrete bridge that Conde B. McCullough designed for the Oregon State Highway Department after he became the State Bridge Engineer in the spring of 1919.
This bridge was part of the Old Pacific Highway 99 for many years before Interstate-5 was constructed and bypassed this bridge in the early 1960s.
This bridge went through a major rehabilitation in 2010 to replace deteriorating guardrails and other concrete supports.
The Oregon DOT website contains an awesome list of historic bridges in Oregon and has the following to say regarding this bridge:
This structure is an early major arch bridge completed under the design auspices of Conde B. McCullough, Oregon's noted bridge engineer. McCullough designed the Rock Point Bridge, originally on the old Pacific Highway, to conform with and complement the local landscape. The structure is 505 feet in length, and the main span is a single 113-foot open-spandrel, rib-type reinforced concrete deck arch. The structure has curved arch fascia curtain walls. The railing on the original main span is an urn-shaped balustrade with a band of dentils below. The ends of the main piers are bushhammered for textured contrast. This structure replaced a timber Howe truss covered bridge. The bridge was constructed by Parker and Banfield, Portland. Because of the great depth of the water at the bridge location, it was impossible to build falsework under the main arch span. The contractor solved the problem by building a temporary wood truss span over the river to give support to the forms.