The bridge was named for Benjamin G. Humphreys II, a former United States Congressman from Greenville.

Because of its narrow two lanes with no shoulders, the bridge often became blocked by accidents or by the crossing of large vehicles like farm equipment.

The Benjamin G. Humphreys Bridge, very modern in its time, was a two lane, steel cantilevered truss bridge that carried US 82/278 over the Mississippi River, and connected the towns of Lake Village, Arkansas and Greenville, Mississippi by road for the first time.

[4] Both the original bridge and its replacement are geographically mostly in Arkansas, as the state lines were determined prior to the shift west of the Mississippi River.

Fox, (the secretary of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce), to get Congress to pass a law authorizing the bridge.

In 1938, Smith applied for money from the Works Progress Administration to fund the estimated $4.5 million it would take to build the bridge.

The Works Progress Administration agreed to the proposal in September 1938 and construction started on the bridge a few months later.

[5] The Benjamin G. Humphreys Bridge was built by the company now known as HNTB and opened to much fanfare in 1940 as the "pathway to progress" for the Mississippi Delta.

[6] In 2011, the massive process of removing the old bridge by cutting into small sections to be recycled was begun and was completed in September 2012.