[7] In February 2011, Union Pacific Railroad officials agreed to the idea of converting the 1917 roadways into a bicycle-pedestrian walkway across the river.

[12] Mayor E.H. Crump met with officials from the Rock Island Railroad on February 5, 1912, to discuss the possibility of a new bridge.

The plan drew wide support from the Memphis business community, and political leaders were urged to present a bill to Congress for approval of the ambitious project.

[13] Initially, developers of the Rock Island Railroad were not interested in providing vehicular access to their bridge.

Newly elected Congressman Kenneth McKellar from Memphis threatened to block the bridge permit if wagonways were not included.

This bill also met with opposition in the form of Democratic party leader Oscar Underwood of Alabama.

Congressman Underwood's campaign manager, Edward Campbell, was attorney for the Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham Railroad, which was the owner of the "Great Bridge."

The KCM&B Railroad did not want a competing bridge to undermine its monopoly on the Mississippi river crossing.

There, the Rock Island Railroad agreed to build a $4 million bridge with wagonways that would be turned over to Crittenden County and the City of Memphis, to be used "without toll for all time.

This was based on the state line being set in the center of the Mississippi river at low water.

This disparity on ownership and maintenance was further exacerbated by the addition of 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from the end of the bridge to the St. Francis Levee.

Harahan was killed in a railroad accident on January 22, 1912 while traveling to Memphis on his private rail car to meet about the construction of the bridge.

[15] The first work was to build 2 miles (3.2 km) of track from an existing line in the Arkansas flood plains to bring materials in place for construction.

They were floated to the location of the piers (held in place by barges) and sunk to the bottom of the river with rip-rap and stone.

This eased the process greatly and saved a tremendous amount of time and effort for the sand hogs.

It did, however, make a spectacular sight as a fountain of river bottom erupted from the caisson, it also left quite a mess on the top of it and any barges nearby.

(35°08′07″N 90°05′07″W / 35.135142°N 90.085369°W / 35.135142; -90.085369) One of the former roadways on the north side of the bridge is now used to carry pedestrian and bicycle traffic across the Mississippi River.