On a campus known for its beauty, Rainbow Bridge stands out. Nestled ‘mid the pines, the graceful span over Wolf Creek is an iconic image of Grove City College.
Built at the cusp of a new era for the College and named in recognition of God’s promise, Rainbow Bridge has carried Grovers from one side of campus to the other for the better part of nine decades.
It was constructed out of necessity in 1931 to get students and faculty from lower campus, where the College had grown up around a cluster of buildings at the edge of downtown Grove City, to upper campus, where Harbison Chapel and the Hall of Science, two key pieces of an ambitious building plan, had been completed. The staircase up the hill, which originally featured a decorative fountain at its base, made its debut at the same time. MORE>>
Today, a gentle creek flows under it, but when Rainbow Bridge was first built, it stood at the end of a large lagoon formed by a dam just downstream where students would go boating and ice skating.
As the 20th century progressed, more components of academic and residential life moved to upper campus, Rainbow Bridge remained a key thoroughfare for students heading to Thorn Field for a football game or downtown to shop, dine, or take in a movie at The Guthrie.
It also became part of a beloved campus tradition that’s origin is lost to time. Known as “creeking,” the ritual involves a just-engaged young man being carried by his friends to Rainbow Bridge and dunked in Wolf Creek while his newly-minted fiancé waits nearby with a towel.
After the dam was removed and the natural flow of Wolf Creek restored, the area was redeveloped and is now the home of a picnic area and Audobon Society nature trail where students string up hammocks and enjoy the beauty of campus.