Clark Eldridge, 94, Bridge Builder; Didn't Let Age Dull Desire To Work

Clark H. Eldridge was an engineer who didn't let age dull his desire to work.

``He was a tremendous individual, he liked people and he always wanted to keep busy,'' said friend and associate Fred Thunberg.

Mr. Eldridge, prominent bridge engineer and lifelong Northwest resident, died last Monday at the age of 94 in Panorama City, a retirement community in Lacey. His memorial service was held Thursday in a Panorama City chapel Mr. Eldridge designed.

Mr. Eldridge's handiwork is a part of Northwest history.

As bridge engineer for the city of Seattle in the 1920s and 1930s, he was credited with construction of Seattle's Montlake Bridge, Spokane Street Bridge, Garfield Street Bridge and the reconstruction of the University Bridge.

He was the engineer in charge of the city's Bridge Department during construction of the Aurora Bridge, completed in 1932, and in 1936 he became bridge engineer for the state Highway Department, overseeing construction of the first floating bridge across Lake Washington and the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

In his memoirs, Mr. Eldridge notes that the ill-fated narrows span, which collapsed 50 years ago this month, was built under specifications of a New York designer after Mr. Eldridge's original design was rejected as too expensive.

Born in Lake Stevens in 1896, Mr. Eldridge attended Washington State College from 1915 until he entered the Army in 1917. He served in France and Germany in World War I, and later finished work on his engineering degree by correspondence.

After working for the city and the state, he took a position with a federal defense project in Guam, heading construction of a U.S. Navy base at the outbreak of World War II.

With the fall of Guam to the Japanese in late 1941, he was taken prisoner and was held three years and nine months, until the end of the war.

After the war, he worked as a general contractor and consulting engineer in Tacoma and Portland, and was Skamania County engineer until he retired to Panorama City in 1970.

But retirement from engineering work didn't suit him and in 1974, at the age of 78, he laid out and did engineering work for Vista Village, a retirement community Thunberg built near Panorama City.

``He said, `I'm too young to retire,' '' Thunberg recalls. ``He not only drew the plans, he would get out and help the survey crews. And he would do this in all kinds of weather.''

At Panorama City, he helped create a benevolent fund used to assist long-term residents with financial problems, particularly medical expenses.

Mr. Eldridge outlived four wives. He is survived by a son, C.W. ``Wally'' Eldridge and his wife, Norma, of Bellevue as well as a grandson and granddaughter in Minneapolis. Remembrances are suggested to a favorite charity.