Chamber of Commerce), to get Congress to pass a law authorizing the bridge. The bill authorizing the bridge was signed into law in August 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 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. 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. It was a through-truss design and had a span of . Until 1943, this was the longest bridge for vehicles on the Mississippi River. Over time, the bridge supported increasing volumes of highway traffic and vehicles hitting the bridge. In the 1950s, an Air Force plane crashed into the bridge. Though the bridge remained structurally sound, it was becoming functionally obsolete. It had only two narrow highway lanes and no shoulders. An accident or the crossing of very large vehicles such as a large combine could force the bridge to close. With river traffic increasing, damage from barge collisions increased. By 1972, the Greenville Bridge was hit more times by barges than any other bridge on the Mississippi. The bridge was located close to a sharp bend in the Mississippi; towboats and barges had difficulty making the sharp turn and regaining their course in time to avoid a collision with the bridge. Over the years many have not been able to make the turn quickly and have hit it. The bridge had become a danger to river traffic. A 1994 engineering study by the Mississippi Department of Transportation explored alternatives to upgrading the crossing of US 82 and issued a report that explored a four-lane crossing at Greenville. It concluded the best of several alternatives it identified was to build a new bridge downriver from the old one and to remove the old bridge. Additional studies evaluated the type of bridge to build, and by 1995, the cable-stayed bridge was chosen as the best design to fit the river and soil conditions, as well as providing sufficient clearance for river navigation. Engineering plans were completed in 1999 for the Greenville Bridge, its replacement. Destruction The new Greenville Bridge opened to traffic on August 4, 2010.