Photo: Wikimedia Commons — see author and license on the file page.

Rainbow Bridge

Historic bridge
Near Galena, Kansas
0.9 mi from Route 66
National Register of Historic Places

The Rainbow Bridge, a single-span concrete arch over Brush Creek, stands just west of Riverton, KS, on a piece of former Route 66 that is now a county road. Built in 1923 to a design by James Barney Marsh, it is the only Marsh arch bridge still standing anywhere along the old highway. A short one-way lane still carries cars across it, so it is easy to include on a drive through Kansas.

What is Rainbow Bridge?

A Marsh arch puts the arch above the roadway, and this bridge is a single concrete span of that type crossing Brush Creek. It is narrow by modern standards. Two more Marsh arches once carried Route 66 over the Spring River in Kansas, but this is the one that survives on the whole length of the former highway.

Over the years the bridge has often been marked with graffiti; it has since been painted white again.

History of Rainbow Bridge

The bridge dates from 1923. It was added to the National Register on March 10, 1983, under the name Brush Creek Bridge, for its link with US 66, and Kansas lists it as a state landmark too. Because it was too narrow for today's traffic, a replacement bridge was built. The federal money for the new bridge required the old one to be torn down, and county officials disagreed with the state's Route 66 association; the compromise kept the arch standing on a short one-way road. In 2014 the Kansas Route 66 Historic Byway put forward a 2.1-mile piece of the original 1926 road, long since bypassed, running south from Brush Creek to Willow Creek Bridge by Baxter Springs, for listing.

Visiting Rainbow Bridge: tips

Follow the one-way road that branches off toward the old arch, drive across slowly and pull over to take photos. Allow 15 minutes or so. Williams' Store, a 1925 general store on the old road, is about 2.1 miles away, and in Baxter Springs the Johnston Library and the Baxter Springs Independent Oil and Gas Service Station are each about 3.3 miles away.