Harp Across the Channel

It’s difficult to distinguish the O’Connell Bridge from the Sitka Harbor shoreline, which is remarkable considering the bridge is 1,255 feet long and towers more than 150 feet over the Sitka Channel. Among the vast commercial fishing fleet and hundreds of charter and recreational vessels berthed on the east side of the strait, the iconic cable-stayed bridge comfortably blends into its idyllic surroundings.

The bridge’s harp design features a trio of cables suspended to the deck in each direction from high atop two sets of 100-foot twin towers. Running parallel to each other at an angle as they cut across the Sitka skyline, the bridge’s stayed cables can easily be mistaken at a distance for yet another series of stays hanging from the mast of a docked trawler.

That’s partly what makes this bridge so appealing. It’s a beautiful bridge, but it’s not boastful. It’s a practical piece of thoughtfully designed infrastructure that has seamlessly woven itself into Sitka’s fabric. In many ways, the O’Connell Bridge represents the zeitgeist of Alaska’s economic development over the last fifty years. On Sunday, September 11, 2022—slightly more than a half-century after the bridge opened to vehicular traffic—the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Alaska Section designated the John O’Connell Memorial Bridge an Alaska Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

“We always seek through the national historic civil engineering landmark program to honor these projects and the engineers who make them happen for their skills as innovators and risktakers,” presenter Larry Magura, the ASCE Region 8 Director, said during the dedication in Sitka.

“That’s honestly what it comes down to—no risk, no reward. Engineers don’t do a particularly good job of blowing their own horn and acknowledging their accomplishments, and that’s really one of the reasons we’re here today. This is a beautiful bridge. It’s very iconic, very aesthetically pleasing. And we’re delighted to be here today to participate in putting a state historic landmark designation on the O’Connell Bridge.”

First Things First

While some recognize the O’Connell Bridge as the first cable-stayed vehicular crossing in the United States, the Historic American Engineering Record among them, the bridge at the very least is the first of its kind in Alaska, “and that is a significant achievement,” said Magura, who cited a number of other cable-stayed crossings with close if not entirely discernible start dates, hence the ASCE’s hesitation toward christening the bridge a nationally historic landmark.

If the Alaska Department of Highways bridge designers had their way in the ‘60s, the “first” would’ve been undisputed. Roy Peratrovich Jr. and Dennis Nottingham, the co-founders