Today he is remembered mostly for founding Montgomery Bell Academy, one of the largest private non-sectarian all-boys high schools in the United States.

Bell finished a tunnel approximately 100 yards (91 m) long through a narrow limestone and sandstone ridge from a point seven miles upstream creating a 4-foot fall to operate his hammers and forge.

Bell suffered losses in the Panic of 1819 and in 1824 he advertised the Narrows and other properties for sale in the Nashville Whig.

Bell offered to sell his ironworks to the U.S. Army for an Armory but floods on the Harpeth were well known and that idea failed.

Bell sold the ironworks to Anthony Wayne Van Leer, who was a member of a well known historical family in Pennsylvania and noted in the anti-slavery cause.

[2] The Narrows property was not sold during Bell's life but much was lost through looting, flooding, and the effects of time.