When the Reverend John Emerson and his wife Ursula arrived in Hawai‘i in 1832, they were assigned to establish an American Protestant missionary station in Waialua. (Clark)
“[T]wo new houses are building which we shall occupy as soon as they are finished. Only a few rods from them is a fine spring of running water, which feeds a small river large enough for canoes.”
“This is the Anahulu which, bending and broadening, empties about a third of a mile away into Waialua Bay, where the ocean waves roll in upon a sandy beach.” “The home was known thereafter as ‘Waipuolo,’ ‘The Bubbling Spring.’” (Emerson)
“The Anahulu river (cave of the hulu – a kind of fish) is a narrow estuary averaging forty feet wide, which makes up from Waialua Bay a mile or more to the mouth of the Kawailoa stream.”
“On its opposite banks were two homes facing each other. On one side were the Gulicks, and on the other the Emersons. In each family there were seven boys and a younger sister, the Gulicks ranging three or four years older than the Emersons.” (Emerson)
Later it was found that a “need of the Waialua farmers was easier access to the Honolulu market, which could only be reached by a horse-trail leading through deep gulches and streams, or by small coasters that had to contend with currents and baffling winds.”
“Accordingly, after much urging, it was decided by the Government to develop the horse-trail into a road and bridge the streams. Of course this work required supervision. The only man at hand who could plan it and handle both native and white workmen, was my father, so he was asked to add to his other duties that of being the road supervisor of the district.”
“During the two years my father held this office, the road up and down the sides of five gulches was graded and made fit for carriages and oxcarts, and over the streams five bridges were built. Eighteen miles of roadway were constructed to connect with the road already built from Honolulu to Ewa.”
“Some of the time my father had a gang of fifty or more natives under him making the road, and several white carpenters at work building the bridges. When all was finished, business in Waialua began to boom.” (Emerson)
Later, “the law declares that vehicles weighing more than 15 tons shall not cross public bridges or traverse public roads … (Star Bulletin, July 22, 1915) The bridge crossing Anahulu Stream in Haleiwa was designed to carry horse-drawn carriages. (Griffin)
Then, “traffic was stopped … when the Anahulu bridge between Waialua and Waialee collapsed under the weight of a twenty two ton plow tractor owned by the Waialua plantation.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 20, 1915)
Around-the-island traffic stopped, “The Anahulu bridge, over the Anahulu stream at Waialua on the main road between Haleiwa and Kahuku; will be closed to traffic until further notice.” (Star Bulletin, July 20, 1915)
Then a new reinforced concrete bridge was planned across Anahulu Stream. George E Marshall was given a $62,000 contract to build the double arched span (each 80 feet long). (Advertiser, Aug 26, 1920)
During construction, the bridge was almost lost. “Working in the pouring rain from 9 o’clock Thursday night to 2 o’clock Friday morning, a gang of workmen directed by George e Marshall saved the new Haleiwa bridge, for which Marshall is the contractor, from probable destruction.”
“[T]he stream, usually low, became a raging torrent due to the kona storm, and was fully 100 yards wide and 10 feet deep. Masses of sugar cane, wooden flumes, boards and debris of various kinds were buried against the bridge by the storm waters and desperate work was necessary to keep the debris from backing up the flood.” (Star Bulletin, Dec 27, 1920)
The bridge later faced a different threat, “The old bridge channels through itself all the life around it. Spanning the Anahulu River, it pulls together the banks of Haleiwa.”
“It remembers the old and sees the new. Its too-narrow arches funnel the tide of progress filtering through the town. ‘Slow down’ it says ‘look at me.’ Built in 1921 when Haleiwa was a sleepy town, the bridge tries to lessen the pace of the traffic it channels through the still sleepy town.”
“The bridge still hears the plop of boots through the taro patches and the lap of waves against the orange and white sampans. The shrill whistle of the cane train is gone, and the clanking rumble of the Tournahauler is fading.”
“The bridge heard the Big-City folk call its neighboring buildings ‘delapidated’ but only scoffed. ‘Old things are good things,’ it said. ‘They allow the old to remember and the young to learn.’
“The bridge feels the surge of the tide below and the stain of red mud on its once-white arches. It feels the weight of small boys jeering the long tour cars or quietly fishing.”
“As the new small boat harbor was carved into the earth at its side, the bridge watched in wonder. Man diverted its river. Man cut off a chunk of the ocean for quiet waters. Man could easily have blown up the too-narrow bridge. Fortunately he didn’t.”
“Beautification once meant to the bridge a new coat of white paint. Now it may mean survival to the matron of Haleiwa, the guardian of the rotting buildings.”
“Like all structures the bridge once faced destruction in the face of bigger and more modern thoroughfares. But plans were changed. The new highway that will bring new faces in search of recreation will pass through Haleiwa nearer the mountains.”
“The old Kamehameha Highway will become a scenic route, a roadway of the past, if the young people of Haleiwa have their way.”
“The rebuilding and new construction in Haleiwa will take on a theme, so have decided the young men who once fished from the bridge. The most dominant scene will be the harbor, the sampans, the fishing village. The other scene, further up the river, will be the taro patches, the small riverside vegetable farms.”
“The new life that grows up along the shores of the river and beaches will share the laziness and quiet of the old life. And standing as a guardian between the two scenes will be the bridge, listening, seeing, feeling.” (Star Bulletin, Feb 14, 1967)
Due to its shape, it earned the name ‘Rainbow Bridge’ – a little more appealing that its technical name, ‘Kamehameha Highway Bridge #603.’ It is one of the most recognized symbols of Hale‘iwa. (Historic Hawai‘i Foundation)
