Both the Hartman Bridge and this bridge suffered from a vibration in the cables that occurred during a light rain and moderate wind. The problem was not understood, and threatened to shorten the service life of the cables. The problem was eventually solved by dampening the cables to counteract the vibrations. On the Veterans Memorial Bridge, shock absorbers were placed between the bridge and the cables very close to the base of the bridge. Despite the Hartman Bridge having the same problem, a different solution was implemented on that bridge, a series of cables were woven into the cable stay cables at a right able to the main cables.
An inspection in 1995 found unexpected cracking in the concrete of the main bridge span. A repair had to be undertaken to change the fasteners holding the internal high-tension cables to better distribute the loads at the endpoints.
Note—The parallel steel arch truss bridge carries the westbound and southbound lanes, and is known as the Rainbow Bridge. The Rainbow bridge is over 170 feet above the water, the tallest bridge in Texas. The reason is that the US Navy wanted every ship in the inventory to be able to pass under the structure. The Navy had a single blimp tender ship that was nearly 170 feet tall, so the bridge was built just a little taller. Ironically, that particular Navy ship never sailed under the completed Rainbow Bridge.
