Gustav Lindenthal

In the aftermath of the political scandal, the new board of commissioners canceled its existing contracts and hired 78 year-old Gustav Lindenthal of New York.

Newspaper headline reading 'City of Portland to spend $6,437,000 for three new bridges', with three sketches of bridges.

Black and white photo of a bearded man wearing white tie.
Gustav Lindenthal (1850-1935) The Sellwood Bridge was among Lindenthal’s last major works. The award for outstanding achievement in bridge engineering, as given by the International Bridge Conference, is named in his honor.
In the aftermath of the political scandal, the new board of commissioners canceled its existing contracts and determined to hire a nationally recognized bridge expert to review and manage the three bridge projects. In June 1924, they hired 78 year-old Gustav Lindenthal of New York, the acknowledged "dean" of American bridge engineers, to take over the bridge program from Hedrick and Kremers.

Lindenthal advised against re-using the Burnside Bridge spans at Sellwood and he also criticized the design of the proposed Ross Island Bridge (The Oregonian, Aug. 5, 1924).

Lindenthal recommended that the new Sellwood Bridge employ an uncommon design: a steel four-span continuous riveted Warren Deck Truss with verticals. The design would make the Sellwood the only bridge of its kind in Oregon, and an extremely rare bridge type anywhere in the world (Wood Wortman, HAER-103). The Sellwood Bridge would be Portland’s first high bridge without a movable span and the first Portland bridge to be designed without trolley tracks - almost entirely devoted to automobile traffic.

Further Reading...

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Last reviewed May 13, 2021

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