A new 12-foot redwood Rainbow Bridge is taking shape in the west-end gardens of the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge, rebuilding a beloved pet memorial that Hurricane Helene swept away in September 2024. The structure will feature five arched railings, with two arches on each side dedicated to displaying collars recovered from the lakebed, and it crosses a custom-built water feature designed to resemble a rocky river.
The original Rainbow Bridge became a gathering place for people grieving lost pets, according to The Tryon Daily Bulletin, which reports that visitors used to leave collars and tags at the site to honor their animals. Artist Amy Wald, who created the original memorial around 2022, is again handling the new bridge's decorative details and will paint the structure herself. The water feature was built by Jay's Landscaping, based in Columbus, with construction completed the week of August 24.
Hundreds of Collars Pulled From the Lakebed
Contractors working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have recovered roughly 470 collars from Lake Lure, and those recovered pieces will be incorporated directly into the new Rainbow Bridge memorial, the Tryon Daily Bulletin's report notes. Separately, the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge has built an online catalog cataloging photos and descriptions of collars pulled from lake bed and marina sediment, according to Lake Lure Flowering Bridge, which also offers digital Rainbow Bridge certificates for pet owners whose tags were never recovered. Contractors found the collars in multiple batches between late 2024 and late 2025 as sediment-clearing work continued across the lake.
The wait for a permanent memorial followed months of makeshift solutions. Weeks after Helene hit, a temporary Rainbow Bridge was installed outside the town's Parks, Recreation, and Lake Department following a donation from a South Carolina couple, as reported by WFMY-TV. A craftsman known as Papa Scrap built and delivered that temporary wooden bridge to give grieving pet owners somewhere to go while the town figured out a longer-term plan.
A Garden Destroyed, Then Rebuilt From the Ground Up
The Rainbow Bridge sits within the larger Lake Lure Flowering Bridge, a historic 1925 three-arch concrete span that carried vehicle traffic between Chimney Rock and Lake Lure for 85 years before it was decommissioned in 2011 and turned into a pedestrian garden walkway, according to the bridge's own site. Before Helene hit, the Flowering Bridge stretched 155 feet across the river, held 30 themed display gardens across a full acre, and drew more than 180,000 visitors a year, per the same organization's account. Two independent engineering assessments found the storm-battered bridge structurally beyond repair, and the town demolished it in August 2025.
Helene's damage went well beyond the bridge itself. The storm also severely damaged Lake Lure's century-old wastewater treatment plant, its sanitary sewer network, the town dam, municipal buildings, and the Washburn Marina, according to the Town of Lake Lure. Even as that broader recovery continued, volunteers pushed ahead on the garden grounds, rebuilding ground-level infrastructure and establishing 16 themed display gardens — including ones nicknamed All Twisted Up and Butterfly Haven — alongside a newly completed Education Center, per the Rutherford County Tourism Development Authority.
Federal Funding Meets Local Reconstruction
Last September, the town secured a $2.5 million FEMA Section 406 grant to rebuild a permanent pedestrian bridge across the Rocky Broad River, covering 90 percent of the roughly $2.85 million estimated cost, as reported by Blue Ridge Public Radio. That funding is separate from the Rainbow Bridge itself but reflects the scale of the federal money flowing into the site's broader restoration. Landscape designer Paul Zimmerman is separately leading plans for the surrounding riverbank, having overseen the planting of 100 rose bushes arranged in a rainbow-colored pattern along with pink dogwood trees, seasonal flowers, and a new patio with benches, according to Mountain Xpress.
Getting materials and volunteers into the area wasn't simple. Regional vehicular access into Lake Lure and Chimney Rock was severely restricted for 18 months after Helene, until NCDOT fully reopened a 2.5-mile washed-out stretch of U.S. 64/74A through Hickory Nut Gorge this past March using temporary single-lane flatcar bridges, as previously reported by Hoodline.
A Concept That Spread Far Beyond Lake Lure
The original Lake Lure memorial has since inspired similar physical Rainbow Bridge installations nationwide, with versions erected in St. Cloud, Minnesota; Greenfield, Indiana; Folly Beach, South Carolina; and at Furman University. Hoodline's coverage of the St. Cloud memorial noted that the Lake Lure original drew more than 16,000 visitors before it was heavily damaged in September 2024. Nearly two years after that storm, the west-end gardens in Lake Lure are once again welcoming visitors to see the new water feature and the redwood bridge rising above it, a small but visible marker of how much of the site's identity survived the flood intact.
