A teenage girl believed to be 18 or 19 years old was rescued from Lake Natoma on Wednesday evening after jumping off Folsom's Rainbow Bridge and becoming stranded on a rock, unable to move. She landed on her back, stayed conscious, and kept talking to responders as Folsom Fire Department crews worked to reach her. She was eventually taken to a hospital, and Rainbow Bridge, which had been temporarily closed during the rescue, reopened once crews finished.
Folsom Fire Department crews were dispatched around 4:50 p.m. Wednesday after receiving reports that the teen had jumped from Rainbow Bridge into the American River along with a larger group of young people, according to CBS Sacramento. She got stuck on the rock despite signs posted on the bridge warning people not to jump into the water below.
Firefighters Race to Reach Teen Stranded on a Rock
Crews launched a rescue boat to reach the teen, and firefighters eventually made their way to her position on the rock. She was moved to shore, where she was handed off for medical care before being transported to a hospital. Folsom Fire officials said the extent of her injuries was not immediately known.
Jumping from bridges, rocks, or other elevated structures into any body of water inside a California State Park is illegal under California Code of Regulations Title 14, a rule that covers the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area surrounding Lake Natoma, according to ABC10. State parks rangers and local police both enforce the regulation along the American River corridor, though Rainbow Bridge remains a persistent hotspot regardless.
A Century-Old Span With a History of Danger
Rainbow Bridge sits roughly 63 feet above the waterline and carries a 208-foot concrete arch span that ranked as the fourth-largest concrete arch in the world when it was completed in 1919, per historical records archived by Calisphere. The open-spandrel arch replaced an 1893 truss bridge and now carries Greenback Lane traffic over Lake Natoma.
This is not the first time the crossing has turned dangerous. In June 2019, a teenage boy drowned after jumping into Lake Natoma downstream from the bridge without a life jacket, and Folsom Fire Department crews recovered his body from 15 feet of water, CBS Sacramento reported at the time.
Just this past April, first responders from Folsom Fire and California State Parks carried out another emergency water rescue after an 18-year-old woman jumped from a moving vehicle on Rainbow Bridge into the river, according to Folsom Times. That rescue involved multiple boats and paddleboarders assisting downstream near Black Miners Bar.
Why the Bridge Keeps Drawing Jumpers
Folsom police officials have long identified Rainbow Bridge as the city's top spot for illegal bridge jumping, largely because of how easy it is to reach on foot or by car, according to Gold Mountain California News. That easy access also creates traffic hazards on Greenback Lane and can force temporary road closures and multi-agency dispatches whenever someone gets hurt.
Water Rescues Strain Folsom's Emergency Crews
Sacramento County recorded 20 drownings in 2024, a year in which the Folsom Fire Department carried out 10 successful water rescues within city limits, most of them during summer heatwaves after mid-June, per Folsom Times. The department keeps two dedicated water rescue vessels, Boat 35 and Boat 36, stationed at Fire Station 35 and Station 36 to cover emergencies across Lake Natoma and the American River, Folsom Times has also reported.
Hidden Hazards and Cold Water Below the Surface
Underwater survey reports and local river divers describe the riverbed directly below Rainbow Bridge as littered with hazards, including large boulders, shopping carts, and steep drop-offs invisible from the bridge deck, according to ABC10. The outlet has also reported recovering a drone from the American River carrying footage of a thrill-seeker jumping more than 100 feet from the adjacent Folsom Historic Truss Footbridge, a sign of how ingrained stunt jumping is at Folsom's river crossings.
Water temperatures in Lake Natoma routinely drop into the low 50s during spring and summer snowmelt runoff, raising the risk of cold-water shock and muscle incapacitation for anyone who jumps in, Folsom Times has reported. Folsom Fire responded to a similarly dramatic scene near the same stretch of water in December 2024, when crews rescued and revived a man from Lake Natoma close to Rainbow Bridge, as Hoodline reported that Christmas night.
