Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow Bridge is a cantilever through truss, and the plaque's story stops at the 1938 dedication. In 1990 a cable-stayed span with a 640-foot main span, the Veterans Memorial Bridge, was dedicated beside it. Since 1997 the older bridge has carried westbound traffic only, with the new one carrying eastbound. The Rainbow went on the National Register in 1996, and a refurbishment of its pavement, ironwork and supports ran from January 2014 to 2017. Its vertical clearance is 177 feet.

What the plaque says

Rainbow Bridge The rapid growth of the petrochemical industry in Jefferson and Orange counties in the early 20th century led to increased population in this area. In order to serve escalating transportation needs, plans began in the 1920s for the construction of a bridge to span the Neches River. Due to the depressed economy and differences of opinion among business leaders, the campaign to build the bridge (led by the Port Arthur "News" and American Legion Post No. 7) lasted for seven years. In 1934 Gov. Miriam A. Ferguson signed a special law to enable county bond and Federal Public Works Administration funds to pay for state highway bridge construction. The project engineer, G. G. Wickline, used innovative techniques to design a bridge that would cross 7,742 feet of marshy terrain and river bottom. The bridge's 680-foot central span, designed to clear a Navy ship carrying a moored dirigible, was, at 176 feet, the world's highest elevated roadbed over tidal waters. The final cost of the bridge was $2,750,000. Its dedication on September 8, 1938, drew huge crowds and was a major local event. In a 1957 contest sponsored by the North Port Arthur Lions Club, it was named "Rainbow Bridge." (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 7.1 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 12 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Stark Museum of Art — 12 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 13 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• Central Baptist Church — 3.1 mi
• Trinity Lutheran Church — 3.3 mi
• Janis Lyn Joplin — 4.2 mi
• Harry Henry Choates — 4.7 mi