Caruthersville Bridge | |
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Coordinates | 36°06′54″N89°36′47″W / 36.11500°N 89.61306°W |
Carries | 4 lanes of ![]() ![]() |
Crosses | Mississippi River |
Locale | Caruthersville, Missouri and Dyersburg, Tennessee |
Maintained by | Tennessee Department of Transportation |
ID number | 23I01550001 |
Characteristics | |
Design | Cantilever bridge |
Total length | 7,102 feet (2,165 m) |
Width | 78 feet (24 m) |
Longest span | 920 feet (280 m) and 520 feet (158 m) |
Clearance below | 99 feet (30 m) |
History | |
Opened | December 1, 1976 |
Statistics | |
Daily traffic | 9,900 |
Location | |
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The Caruthersville Bridge is a single tower cantilever bridge carrying Interstate 155 and U.S. Route 412 across the Mississippi River between Caruthersville, Missouri, and Dyersburg, Tennessee. Completed in 1976, it is the only bridge that connects Missouri and Tennessee, and the northernmost bridge on the Lower Mississippi River. [1] It stands downstream of the Cairo Mississippi River Bridge and upstream of the Hernando de Soto Bridge.
The bridge was first proposed in the early 1940s. [2] A committee was created by both state legislatures to study the possibility of constructing the bridge in 1949. [3] The site was chosen by the commission on November 18, 1952, [4] which was subsequently approved by the Army Corps of Engineers on August 20, 1953. [5] Construction of the bridge began in March 1969. [6] The bridge cost US$25,800,000(equivalent to $138,143,158 in 2023) and was opened on December 1, 1976, in a ceremony by Missouri Governor Kit Bond and Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton. [7] [8] It is the only bridge to cross the Mississippi River between Cairo, Illinois and Memphis, Tennessee, though the Dorena-Hickman Ferry also crosses the Mississippi in this area. It is also the only bridge to connect the states of Missouri and Tennessee directly. Interstate 155 connects Dyersburg, Tennessee (and the proposed Interstate 69) with Interstate 55 near Caruthersville, Missouri and Hayti, Missouri. U.S. Route 412, when created in 1982, was routed across the bridge.
The Mississippi River is the primary river, and second-longest river, of the largest drainage basin in the United States. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 2,340 miles (3,766 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the thirteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Interstate 24 (I-24) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It runs diagonally from I-57, 10 miles (16 km) south of Marion, Illinois, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, at I-75. It travels through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. As an even-numbered Interstate, it is signed as an east–west route, though the route follows a more southeast–northwest routing, passing through Nashville, Tennessee. The numbering deviates from the standard Interstate Highway System grid, lying further north than its number would indicate west of Nashville. The short segment within Georgia bears the unsigned designation State Route 409 (SR 409).
Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway in the southeastern and southwestern portions of the United States. At a length of 2,556.61 miles (4,114.46 km), it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to east, it passes through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Its western terminus is at I-15 in Barstow, California, while its eastern terminus is at a concurrency with U.S. Route 117 (US 117) and North Carolina Highway 132 (NC 132) in Wilmington, North Carolina. Major cities served by the interstate include Flagstaff, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Amarillo, Texas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Little Rock, Arkansas; Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville in Tennessee; and Asheville, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Durham, Raleigh, and Wilmington in North Carolina.
Interstate 55 (I-55) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates that end in a five, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, connecting the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes. The highway travels from LaPlace, Louisiana, at I-10 to Chicago, Illinois, at U.S. Route 41, at McCormick Place. The major cities that I-55 connects to are New Orleans, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; and Chicago, Illinois.
Dyer County is a county located in the westernmost part of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 36,801. The county seat is Dyersburg. Dyer County comprises the Dyersburg, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Caruthersville is a city in and the county seat of Pemiscot County, Missouri, United States, located along the Mississippi River in the Bootheel region of the state's far southeast. The population was 5,562, according to the 2020 census.
U.S. Route 412 is an east–west United States highway, first commissioned in 1982. U.S. 412 overlaps expressway-grade Cimarron Turnpike from Tulsa west to Interstate 35 and the Cherokee Turnpike from 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Chouteau, Oklahoma, to 8 miles (13 km) west of the Arkansas state line. It runs the entire length of the Oklahoma Panhandle and traverses the Missouri Bootheel.
West Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that roughly comprises the western quarter of the state. The region includes 21 counties between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers, delineated by state law. Its geography consists primarily of flat lands with rich soil and vast floodplain areas of the Mississippi River. Of the three regions, West Tennessee is the most sharply defined geographically, and is the lowest-lying. It is both the least populous and smallest, in land area, of the three Grand Divisions. Its largest city is Memphis, the state's second most populous city.
Interstate 155 (I-155) is an east–west auxiliary route of Interstate 55 (I-55) that runs through the Bootheel of Missouri and the northwestern corner of Tennessee. It begins south of Hayti, Missouri, at I-55, passes eastward through Caruthersville, and crosses the Mississippi River on the Caruthersville Bridge into Tennessee. The route then proceeds to Dyersburg, Tennessee, where it terminates at U.S. Route 51 (US 51). I-155 is the only road that directly connects Missouri and Tennessee, and is concurrent with US 412 for its entire length.
The Hernando de Soto Bridge is a tied-arch bridge carrying Interstate 40 across the Mississippi River between West Memphis, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee. The design is a continuous cantilevered cable-stayed steel through arch, with bedstead endposts. Memphians also call the bridge the "New Bridge", as it is newer than the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge downstream, and the "M Bridge", due to its distinctive shape. It is of similar construction to the Sherman Minton Bridge between Louisville, Kentucky, and New Albany, Indiana.
Interstate 55 (I-55) is part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from LaPlace, Louisiana, to Chicago, Illinois. In the state of Tennessee, the Interstate is located entirely within the state's second-largest city of Memphis, running 12.28 miles (19.76 km) from the Mississippi state line in the Whitehaven neighborhood to the Arkansas border across the Mississippi River. Of the six states that the Interstate passes through, the segment in Tennessee is the shortest, as well as the shortest mainline Interstate segment in Tennessee. I-55 serves a number of neighborhoods and industrial areas in the southwestern portion of Memphis, and also provides access to the Memphis International Airport, the second-busiest cargo airport in the world.
Interstate 40 (I-40) is part of the Interstate Highway System that runs 2,556.61 miles (4,114.46 km) from Barstow, California, to Wilmington, North Carolina. The highway crosses Tennessee from west to east, from the Mississippi River at the Arkansas border to the Blue Ridge Mountains at the North Carolina border. At 455.28 miles (732.70 km), the Tennessee segment of I-40 is the longest of the eight states through which it passes and the state's longest Interstate Highway.
Interstate 65 (I-65) is part of the Interstate Highway System that runs 887.30 miles (1,427.97 km) north–south from Mobile, Alabama, to Gary, Indiana. In Tennessee, I-65 traverses the middle portion of the state, running from Ardmore at the Alabama border to the Kentucky border near Portland. The route serves the state capital and largest city of Nashville, along with many of its suburbs. Outside of urban areas, the Interstate bypasses most cities and towns that it serves, instead providing access via state and U.S. Highways. The Interstate passes through the Highland Rim and Nashville Basin physiographic regions of Tennessee, and is often used as the dividing line between the eastern and western portions of the former.
Interstate 69 (I-69) is a proposed Interstate Highway that will pass through the western part of the US state of Tennessee, serving the cities of Union City, Dyersburg, and Memphis. Currently, a 21-mile (34 km) section of already-existing freeway in Memphis has been approved for the I-69 designation while another segment near Union City opened on February 21, 2024, under the temporary designation of Tennessee State Route 690. However, state officials have stated that they will not commit to finishing the interstate in their state until they receive more federal funding.
U.S. Route 412 (US 412) enters the state of Missouri from Arkansas near Cardwell. The highway leaves the state into Tennessee concurrent with I-155 near Caruthersville.
In Tennessee, U.S. Route 412 stretches for 181.93 miles (292.79 km) through the farmland of West Tennessee and the hills of Middle Tennessee, starting at the Missouri state line near Dyersburg and running to an interchange between I-65 and SR 99 in Columbia.
Route 84 is a state highway in the Missouri bootheel. The route starts at Arkansas Highway 90 over the St. Francis River on the Arkansas–Missouri state line. The road travels eastward to Kennett, where it becomes concurrent with U.S. Route 412. East of Kennett, the concurrent routes travel eastward on a divided highway to Hayti Heights, where the concurrency ends. Route 84 travels through Hayti Heights and Hayti, and it crosses Interstate 55 (I-55) and US 61. The route then travels southeastwards to Caruthersville, and bypasses the central area of the city. In the southern part of Caruthersville, Route 84 ends at an interchange with I-155 and US 412.
The Ohio Valley Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year is an annual award given to the Ohio Valley Conference's (OVC) most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1962–63 season.
WDYR-CD was a low-power, Class A television station in Dyersburg, Tennessee, United States, owned and operated by Tri-State Christian Television. The station's studios were located on Upper Finley Road in Dyersburg.