Constructed by District 12 of the State Department of Highways and Transportation, Hartman Bridge is one of three multilane highway bridges that cross the Houston Ship Channel. Its central, 1,250-foot-long span is suspended from twin pairs of double-diamond concrete masts, 440 feet high. Anchored in the masts are the brilliantly yellow, rigid steel cables that stay the clear-spanned bridge, which affords 178 feet of vertical clearance. From the bridge's summit one gets a panoramic vista of the immense petrochemical and shipping infrastructure concentrated along the ship channel, a rare elevated prospect in the flat landscape of the Gulf Coastal Plain.