Charles H. Purcell

(1883-1951) born at North Bend, Dodge County, lived in Lincoln. Civil engineer, known as chief engineer of San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, completed in 1936 and the first bridge to cross San Francisco Bay, he was one of the national highway authorities who helped pioneer the Interstate Highway System; the Bay Bridge was designated in 1955 by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the seven modern civil engineering wonders of the United States; elected honorary member of ASCE in 1945. Consult Wilber /NE/ Republican, June 2, 1999, pp. 5-6 and American National Biography, Sup 1 (2002) 493-494.

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