piers were being built on top of them, adding weight and driving the caisson deeper into the river bottom. The piers were masonry blocks of granite backed with concrete. The piers of the Harahan were located directly upstream of the piers of the Frisco Bridge to keep the navigation channels open to river traffic. Pier IV was moved toward the river relative to the Frisco Pier IV. This enabled the engineers to design two suspended spans and three cantilevered arms identically. With the caissons sunk and the substructure complete, work began on the steel superstructure. The longest span between Pier I and Pier II was the first to be built. This span would be built without falsework, employing two cantilevered arms and a suspended arm. The next span to be complete was between Pier II and Pier III, using temporary falsework wood support timbers driven into the river bottom to hold the fixed span in place until it was complete. The span between Pier III and Pier IV was started concurrently. Span II to III was finished on December 22, 1915. On December 24, 1915, the river rose too quickly and washed away the false work. Span II to III was not damaged, although it moved . Span III to IV was completely washed out, forcing a delay in the construction and a redesign on the span. On July 14, 1916, the first train crossed the bridge. The celebration that had been planned was cancelled due to the war in Europe. The wagonways were not opened until September 17, 1917. The delay was due to construction problems with a wooden viaduct in Arkansas. The wagonways are still on the bridge, and the Arkansas approach has road stubs leading towards I-55. () Big River Crossing 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. The bridge is a vital part of a larger project that connects Main Street in Memphis to Broadway in West Memphis, Arkansas. In 2016, it was announced that an anonymous donor had pledged $5 million to illuminate the bridge. The Harahan Bridge became the second illuminated bridge in Memphis, the only one to be illuminated by LED (although plans are in the works to re-light the Hernando de Soto Bridge upstream with LED's). See also List of crossings of the Lower