There was an important ship passage there, and they wanted the USS Patoka, the navy's highest ship at the time, to be able to pass comfortably beneath it. The Rainbow Bridge was more than just a feat of engineering. In the evening, it was also a draw for teens. There were signs posted all over it saying "No U-turns," because many young people had taken their cars on a joy ride down south, then came back up again without paying for gas, thinking that since the bridge was still here they would not be caught. The police chief at the time decided that this was too great a hazard for young people, so he banned them from driving across it. The Navy gave the job of designing the bridge to Austin construction company H.G. Smith. They turned to one of their employees, Earl E. Stone, for advice on how to build something like this. Stone is known as the father of modern architecture, so he must have been pretty impressed with what he saw! There are actually two Rainbow Bridges. The first one was built in 1940 by the WPA (Federal Works Agency). It was located near Port Aransas, about 25 miles southwest of Corpus Christi. This bridge was destroyed when Hurricane Alicia hit Texas in 1990. The Navy bought the rights to the name "Rainbow" and built another bridge about 15 miles further west near Canyon Lake. It opened in 1994 and has become a popular tourist attraction.