A white, arched concrete bridge spans across lush greenery under a partly cloudy sky, conveying a serene and peaceful rural landscape.
The unique and graceful Rainbow Arch design was the brainchild of James Barney Marsh, a bridge designer from Iowa, who patented the concrete and steel truss design in 1912. Marsh spent the next two decades erecting approximately 70 of his Rainbow Arch bridges throughout the Midwest. Built in 1923, this 130-foot bridge carried Route 66 motorists over Brush Creek until it was bypassed by the interstate in the 1960s.
The bridge consists of a pair of arches disposed between two abutments, with concrete banister railings aligned parallel with the bridge deck. The original patents called for slideable wear plates, molded into the concrete where the bridge deck came into contact with the beams and abutments. This is important, as one of the main benefits of this design was to allow for the expansion and contraction of the reinforced concrete bridge under varying conditions of temperature and moisture.
The Brush Creek Bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In 1992, upon seeing two other Marsh Arch bridges on the short stretch of Route 66 through Kansas dismantled, the Kansas Historic Route 66 Association worked successfully to save the Brush Creek Bridge.
Route 66 Kansas: The Rainbow Bridge. The only Marsh Arch concrete bridge left on Route 66. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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