The Benjamin G. Humphreys Bridge was a two-lane cantilevered truss bridge carrying U.S. Route 82/U.S. Route 278 across the Mississippi River between Lake Village, Arkansas and Greenville, Mississippi. It was the first bridge to connect the two towns. The bridge was named for Benjamin G. Humphreys II, a former United States Congressman from Greenville. Hailed as progressive when it opened in 1940, it became functionally obsolete as vehicle and river traffic increased. 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. Due to its location near a sharp bend in the Mississippi River, the bridge became a hazard to river traffic; barges and towboats frequently collided with it. In 1994, a study concluded that a new bridge was needed and the old one should be torn down. In 2010, a new bridge, the Greenville Bridge, was opened as a replacement further downriver from the sharp bend. In 2011, work began to remove the Benjamin G. Humphreys Bridge. Description 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. Prior to the bridge, local vehicles and local freight could only cross the river by ferry. It was named after Benjamin G. Humphreys, a US Congressman from Greenville who co-authored a flood control bill in 1917, establishing a national flood control program on the Mississippi and promoted the concept of flood control to contain the river. The bridge opened on October 4, 1940, to great fanfare. Its main span width was , the highway bridge with the longest span on the Mississippi River. The width of the roadway was —two lanes of each with no shoulders. 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. History In the late 1930s, talk started on the construction of a bridge to cross the Mississippi River at Greenville. In 1936, a group called the Arkansas-Mississippi-Alabama US 82 Association was formed to raise funds for the bridge. In 1937, Milton C. Smith (the mayor at that time) worked with John A. Fox, (the secretary of the Washington County