The Wichita Beacon of the next day reported:

The speaking program was preceded by a concert by the South Side Booster Band at 7:30 p.m. and was followed by dancing on the bridge to the music of Bob and Laura Collins and their orchestra from Shadowland, which was closed for the occasion. Dancing continued until a late hour, when the barriers were removed and the first cars were allowed to pass over the new span.

At this time, the John Mack Bridge has served faithfully for over  six decades. It is a familiar landmark, loved by the citizens of Wichita and used daily by thousands of vehicles.

In the 1930s, it carried displaced victims of the depression on their exit from the city, and it greeted the homeless and jobless who came to Wichita to escape the dust bowl of the farming communities.

Lawrence Avenue was widened to four lanes, and the John Mack Bridge became immediately and forever a bottleneck to traffic flow. It carried the traffic of U.S. Highway 81, the main north-south trafficway of the area.

As Wichita grew and wished to change its image Lawrence Avenue was renamed Broadway, the reasoning for the change being that large metrolpolitan areas usually had a "Broadway." Then the city set its sights on beautification. On Dec. 22, 1934, the Wichita Eagle reported:

From the south end of the bridge to a point .151 of a mile distant, the roadsides are to be planted with plants that not only will reinforce the grade on which the roadway is built but which will make a lovely vista for the motorist approaching Wichita from the south.

After Pearl Harbor, in the decade of the 1940s, thousands of workers crossed the bridge night and day to reach the defense plants which were operating around the clock south of the city. The character of Broadway started to change as many of the large single residences were divided up into boarding houses and apartments to accommodate the onslaught of workers. The area north of the bridge to Pawnee Avenue was often the site of traveling carnival type shows.

The decision was made in 1929 to replace the old, dangerous South Lawrence Bridge with its wooden planks and hazardous curves. On Nov. 7, the Tomlinson Bridge & Supply Company of Garfield, Kansas, made the low bid of $153,000 for constructing a concrete bridge and $203,000 for a steel bridge. This company had just recently completed a bridge midway between Wichita and Hutchinson and was, at the time, building a bridge over the Big Arkansas at Larned. Five companies, three of them located in Iowa and two in Kansas, bid on the project. No Wichita firms submitted bids.

The man behind this historically unique bridge was described by the Kansas Preservation, September-October, 1980, the newsletter of the Preservation Department of the Kansas State Historical Society.

In the spring of 1896 he formed his own company, the Marsh Bridge Company. In private practice as a contracting engineer, Marsh was able to more fully develop his own designs. He also constructed the designs he developed, usually using steel as a medium. At the turn of the century, he initiated the use of both concrete and steel in his bridge design. In April 1904, the Marsh Bridge Company was incorporated as the Marsh Engineering Company.

The John Mack Bridge is of the distinctive Marsh Arch design built in the early 1900s. A letter from Eric DeLony, Chief & Principal Architect of the Historic American Engineering Record, United States Department of the Interior, dated April 18, 1991, stated:

The standard Marsh Arch was of single, two or three spans. Though I know of a few longer Marsh Arch bridges such as the Rainbow Bridge (11 spans) in Fort Morgan, Colorado, there are not many Marsh Arches of eight spans. The Broadway Bridge is the longest Marsh Arch in Kansas. It is one of the State’s most historically significant and probably one of the most significant in the country.

The Nomination Form for the National Register of Historic Places Inventory of the United States Department of the Interior, dated April 6, 1983, reads:

Kansas did not make extensive use of reinforced concrete spans until the introduction of the rainbow arch by James Barney Marsh. These are often referred to as the Marsh Arch. The earliest known Marsh arch in Kansas was built in 1917. The latest was erected in 1934. Construction of the arch bridges reached its peak in the late 1920s and declined after 1930. An inventory by the Kansas Department of Transportation in the early 1980s listed 73 rainbow arches standing in Kansas.

The best description of Marsh's bridge design is contained in his 1911 patent application. The bridge consisted of "two abutments (which could be piers), a pair of arches disposed between and spring from the abutments, the floor carried by and between the arches and reaching from one abutment to the other where it aligns with the parapets or rails along opposite sides of the floor line." Slideable wear plates were molded into the concrete where the bridge floor came into contact with the beams and abutments. Later refinements made use of the cast steel expansion rocker bearing. One of the main benefits of the design was to allow for the expansion and contraction of the reinforced concrete bridge under varying conditions of temperature and moisture.

The Wichita Morning Eagle of Feb. 4, 1930, announced that work had started on the "bridge across the river on South Lawrence." Workmen had begun excavating for the footings east of the old bridge. Erection of the bridge was expected to take a year and would be under the supervision of the state highway department. The new bridge would follow an almost due north and south course to eliminate the curves found on the ends of the old bridge. This meant the new bridge would cross the river diagonally. The highway would be rerouted and paved to line up with the new bridge.

Not long after work began on the bridge, however, legal problems entered the picture. A teaser in The Wichita Morning Eagle of Sept. 17, 1930, read, "Bridge contractor to be arrested on labor law charge. Ed Tomlinson alleged to have worked his employees over eight hours a day." The Eagle went on to say:

The statue applies only to contractors or sub-contractors who are working for the state. It specifies no state contractor may work his laborers more than eight hours at a stretch except in case of war, in the protection of property or human life or other emergency.

The next day, Tomlinson entered a plea of not guilty and his trial was set for Sept. 26. He posted bond of $500. Some five workmen were said to have been involved, and Tomlinson was named in five counts in the state warrant. At his trial, he entered a plea of guilty and was fined $50 and costs.

Legal problems were not over however. In October 1930, bids were taken for paving the approach to the new bridge. The Globe Construction Company of Wichita submitted the low bid of $24,306.15. But some difficulties were encountered in gaining title to land needed for the new paving. The Wichita Morning Eagle of Jan. 23, 1931, spoke of the legal entanglements being faced by the state highway commission.

W. G. Anderson, member of the commission, said, "The commission is willing to pay every cent the land it takes for right-of-way is worth, but it is not in sympathy with the tendency so prevalent to boost prices." The commission could not reach agreement with some of the landowners, so the commission brought condemnation proceedings.

In January 1930, John C. Mack died at his home in Newton from complications of a kidney infection from which he had suffered for two years. He had been a prominent pioneer newspaper publisher, state representative and member of the state highway commission.

The Wichita Eagle of Thursday morning, Jan. 30, 1930, read:

He became identified with the newspaper business in 1896 and two years later became acting manager of The Newton Kansan Republican. In 1907, he incorporated the Kansas Printing Company, of which he was the head.

The dedication and opening of the John Mack Bridge was a cause for celebration on July 22, 1931. An estimated 5,000 citizens turned out for the celebration. The next day the Wichita Eagle reported:

"John Mack, as a member of the commission, proposed this South Lawrence bridge for some time prior to the passage of the final resolution for its construction on July 9, 1929," Brown said. "In his illness he called the state highway engineers to his bedside for consultation about the construction. The work was commenced the day after his death."

Brown added, "This bridge still will stand after most of us are gone and forgotten, but the name of John C. Mack will remain."

W. G. Anderson of Winfield, commissioner for the fifth district, which included Wichita, said, "This bridge will serve not only this generation, but generations yet unborn."

State, county and city officials were introduced. Not to be forgotten were the "tanned and muscular workers who had raised the skeleton and poured the cement of the bridge."

In 1984, an engineering report prepared by the Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC) indicated the bridge was in fair to poor condition and recommended replacement. An engineering analysis conducted six years later by Howard, Needles, Tammen and Bergendoff (HNTB) concluded that the bridge had experienced additional deterioration since the 1984 study and should be replaced with a new bridge. The following is from the agenda of the Wichita City Council for Jan. 29, 1991:

The existing bridge is the longest Marsh Arch structure in Kansas, but it is not listed on the National Historic Register. However, because of the aesthetics of the existing bridge and its historic nature, staff recommends that the City Council solicit input from the Citizen Participation Organization, the Historic Wichita Board and the public before making a determination on a repair or reconstruct alternative.

As the citizens of Wichita realized the bridge was in real danger of demolition, they sprang to action. A Save the John Mack Bridge Committee was formed, and Lois Ann Newman was appointed chairperson. The committee of volunteers includes bridge engineers, CPO activists and citizens who just want to see the structure preserved.

Members of the committee have obtained favorable publicity through the media and have been warmly encouraged by the citizenry. They have been successful in obtaining several thousand signatures on petitions asking that the bridge be placed on the National Historical Register and be preserved as an historic landmark.

In addition to their public appeals, committee members have met with representatives of the planning commission, department of public works, the city council, and the state historical society.

They received whole-hearted support from the historical society. On the nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places in regard to the rainbow arch bridges of Kansas, Nora Pat Small, Architectural Historian of the Kansas State Historical Society, stated:

Bridges were for centuries combinations of artistic expression and engineering expertise. Although the architectural and artistic aspects of bridge-building seem to have been forgotten the last few decades, as late as the 1930s the combination of aesthetics with technology in utilitarian structures was viewed as the goal toward which engineers and architects alike should strive. . . The Marsh arch bridges in Kansas are a result of this combination of engineering and architecture. They are products of an era when aesthetics were still as important as utilitarianism.