Helena Bridge

The Helena Bridge is a cantilever bridge carrying U.S. Route 49 across the Mississippi River between Helena, Arkansas and Lula, Mississippi.

Helena Bridge
Coordinates	34°29′48″N 90°35′17″W / 34.49667°N 90.58806°W / 34.49667; -90.58806
Carries	2 lanes of US 49
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	Helena, Arkansas and Lula, Mississippi
ID number	000000000002899
Characteristics
Design	Cantilever bridge
Total length	5,204 feet (1,586 m)
Width	28 feet (9 m)
Longest span	804 feet (245 m)
Clearance below	119 feet (36 m)
History
Opened	July 27, 1961
Statistics
Daily traffic	6,000 (2007)
Location

The main cantilever span was modeled on the similar Benjamin G. Humphreys Bridge which had been built downstream by Arkansas and Mississippi roughly two decades earlier. However, the river navigation issues that led to the replacement of the Humphreys Bridge with the Greenville Bridge do not apply to the Helena Bridge, as the river curve here is far less severe than the one just upstream from the Humphreys and Greenville Bridges.

The bridge had a stated construction cost of $14 million, and was opened as a toll bridge in 1961 until that initial cost was repaid. The total length of the bridge is slightly less than a mile and it replaced an earlier ferry.^[1][2] The bridge superstructure suffered its first substantial damage from a barge accident in July 1997.^[3]