The Red River Bridge was a truss bridge crossing the Red River at Garland, Arkansas. It carried vehicular traffic from 1931 to 1990 and has since been demolished. The southwest corner of Arkansas was cut off from the rest of the state by the Red River, which was crossed only by ferries and one railroad bridge until the twentieth century. The bridge at Garland was designed by state highway engineer

Ira G. Hedrick Ira Grant Hedrick (April 6, 1868 – December 28, 1937) was an American civil engineer who designed the Burnside Bridge in Oregon, the Red River Bridge, Clarendon, and Newport bridges in Arkansas, and many other bridges and viaducts. Hedric ...

in October 1927 and located along the old military road from

El Dorado El Dorado (, ; Spanish for "the golden"), originally ''El Hombre Dorado'' ("The Golden Man") or ''El Rey Dorado'' ("The Golden King"), was the term used by the Spanish in the 16th century to describe a mythical tribal chief (''zipa'') or king o ...

to Texarkana (later to become part of

U.S. Route 82 U.S. Route 82 (US 82) is an east–west United States highway in the Southern United States. Created on July 1, 1931 across central Mississippi and southern Arkansas, US 82 eventually became a 1,625-mile (2,615 km) route extending from ...

). Hedrick's design included three through spans of Pennsylvania truss. The winning bid for construction was submitted by the

Kansas City Bridge Company The Kansas City Bridge Company was a bridge building company that built many bridges throughout the Midwest United States in the early 1900s. The company was founded in 1893 and ceased business around 1960. A number of its works are listed on the ...

, which was given the contract in September 1929. Construction activities for the bridge disturbed traffic through Garland, and this period was marked by conflict between state highway authorities and the city. (The new bridge also threatened the ferry business owned by Garland's Mayor Beasley.) The spans (though not the approaches) were complete by the morning of September 3, 1930, when two

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...

blasts threw the central span from its piers and into the river, doing $150,000 of damage. The motive was thought to be either resentment over the use of non-union labor on the bridge or an attempt to protect the local ferry business. A highway worker arrested in December and was convicted of dynamiting the bridge, but the man he accused of hiring him was acquitted, and no other persons were brought to trial for the crime. The bridge was repaired and opened, without ceremony, on July 15, 1931. Originally opened as a toll bridge, the

Arkansas General Assembly The General Assembly of Arkansas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of the upper house Arkansas Senate with 35 members, and the lower Arkansas House of Representatives with 100 ...

made all bridges in the state free in 1938. In later years, the bridge proved inadequate to support heavy truck traffic on U.S. Route 82. A steel support system was added to the east end in 1986, but the bridge continued to suffer from spalling concrete on the piers. The bridge was documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in 1988. A new bridge was constructed upstream to carry U.S. Route 82 so that the old bridge could be closed. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, but was in very poor condition, and it was ultimately demolished and removed from the National Register in 1999.

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* {{National Register of Historic Places Bridges completed in 1931 Demolished bridges in the United States Former National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Historic American Engineering Record in Arkansas Transportation in Miller County, Arkansas U.S. Route 82 Bridges of the United States Numbered Highway System Former toll bridges in Arkansas Red River of the South Steel bridges in the United States Pennsylvania truss bridges in the United States 1931 establishments in Arkansas Demolished buildings and structures in Arkansas 1999 disestablishments in Arkansas

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