On the National Register of Historic Places,
this bridge has become the symbol of
Cotter. Designed by the Marsh Engineering
Company and built by Bateman Contracting
Company, the bridge is of the type known
as a Marsh Rainbow Arch Bridge.
The reinforced-concrete rainbow arch design was patented by James Marsh
in 1912. Named decades later after the County Judge (R. M. Ruthven) who
managed to obtain it, the span was a major factor in the development of
transportation in north-central Arkansas.