Helena Bridge

34°29′48″N 90°35′17″W / 34.49667°N 90.58806°W / 34.49667; -90.58806Carries2 lanes of US 49CrossesMississippi RiverLocaleHelena, Arkansas and Lula, MississippiID number000000000002899CharacteristicsDesignCantilever bridgeTotal length5,204 feet (1,586 m)Width28 feet (9 m)Longest span804 feet (245 m)Clearance below119 feet (36 m)HistoryOpenedJuly 27, 1961StatisticsDaily traffic6,000 (2007)Location

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

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]

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