The Siuslaw River Bridge, designed by Conde B. McCullough as part of the Coast Bridge Project, combined Art Deco, Moderne, Gothic, and Egyptian influences that were important to him, and its center-opening bascule made it the clearest expression of his artistic and technical ingenuity. Construction began on August 5, 1934, cost $527,068.67, used more than 200,000 man-hours over 20 months, and employed an average of 140 men for 30 hours a week; single men could work on the project for six months, while married men could work for up to two years. When the bridge opened on March 31, 1936, a local newspaper said the work had used "thousands of pounds of steel, millions of cement, and oodles of lumber." Known during construction for precision workmanship, the bridge was built with the south section first and then the north, and although the original specifications allowed 1 3/8 inches between the bascule leaves when closed, the first closure missed that distance by only 1/72 of an inch. McCullough, an engineer who served as Oregon State Highway Department State Bridge Engineer from 1919 to 1935, designed this bridge and four others to be efficient, economical, and elegant, later consulted under President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Central American bridges for the Inter-American Highway System, then returned to Oregon as state assistant highway engineer until his death in 1946. Preferring reinforced concrete, he pioneered innovations in its use, became famous for the tied arch or bowstring arch, and advanced bridge engineering in both principle and practice through his unusual design and construction techniques and through his books and technical journals.