Road Trip

Road Trip #214 - I-40 E - West Memphis, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee - Hernando DeSoto Bridge
The northern of the two Mississippi River crossings connecting West Memphis, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee.
Music by Nicolai Heidlas, "Dudel Blues"
We are jasonh300 and sippigrrrl!
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[@Christenloves1999]

I remember when I was a kid, my family moved back and forth from Arkansas to Kentucky and from Kentucky and Arkansas, it was because of a job my dad had years ago working on the road. We crossed that bridge each time! The view is beautiful!

[@roadwaywiz]

The DeSoto Bridge is a work of art and a beauty. The New Madrid Fault Zone is definitely an exception to the seismic rules and civil engineers have been scrambling to retrofit infrastructure from Memphis to St. Louis upon realizing the fault's potential. (Note how the same drastic retrofitting has never been implemented at the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge...) Thanks for the tour, as always!

[@504RoadTrips]

Yep. Nothing was even mentioned about retrofitting the old bridge in anything I read about it. You'd think they would have realized the fault's potential before building both of those bridges considering its history goes back to the 1600s. The last really big one completely rerouted the Mississippi River back in 1812. Aftershocks continued throughout the 19th century. I guess they figured Memphis was too far south, and out of the danger zone.

[@roadwaywiz]

They had known about the earthquakes of 1812 for decades, but had not been able to estimate their strength and frequency until relatively recently (ca. 1980s). When seismologists discovered that there had been as many as three quakes EACH in the period of 1811-12 with a strength of magnitude 8.0, alarm bells went off all along the I-55 corridor and the states of Missouri & Tennessee adopted an attitude (along the lines of California) towards seismic retrofitting and disaster prevention. Note how all of this applied to only the I-40 Bridge: I-40 is a near-transcontinental interstate and a national economic lifeline, so it's bridge was placed at a higher level on the priority list than that of I-55. It's one of the reasons why I concur with our narrator on the I-55 Bridge being "scary".

[@sippigrrrl]

roadwaywiz Thank you for validating my comment with regard to the I-55 bridge being scary! I took a trip from Gulfport to Minneapolis on Christmas Eve in 2007, and it had just started to snow after it had been sleeting, so I imagine that you can guess how great the roads were. I didn’t know that it was possible to clench the steering wheel so hard that my nails literally dug into my palms, but I do now! The bridge that’s between St. Louis and East St. Louis was much, much worse, though, and they closed the interstate just a few miles further north. I’ll never forget that trip. I’d just gotten a new car, and that was when I found out that people who live way down south eschew the use of windshield washer fluid and use water instead. My tank was, of course, frozen. It was a nightmare all around.

[@roadwaywiz]

Wow, that does sound like a harrowing trip - glad you lived to tell about it! When I was driving from Youngstown to west of Cleveland on the Ohio Turnpike last week, I drove straight into a derecho and that was possibly the worst weather I've ever driven in. It was only after I got to my hotel that I saw on the news that the very storm I had just driven through had winds over hurricane force as well as tornadoes. The weather out in the midwest is certainly nothing to take lightly.

[@504RoadTrips]

The most treacherous conditions I've ever driven in can be seen in the US-61 roadtrip series. :P -Jason

[@michellemartin3401]

blue them Memphis blues let the good times roll.🎉🎉🎉🎈🎈💖💖🌺🌺

[@coreysmith8560]

That is a neat bridge. Not sure how one noticed a crack until May 2021.

[@graymikep64]

Sweet

[@ChrisCarpenter-d5e]

We just did this trip on the way to Fl. First time we been to Memphis

[@alanl.simmons9726]

Well done vid graphics & voice over.

[@tjplunk12]

Perfect music choice!

[@CowboyBob531]

You should have continued a little farther east, to the I-40/I-240 junction. You go under two levels of overpass and flyover.

[@travelexpedia6116]

My Sibilings and me are from Memphis Tennessee my Brother And 3 sisters Grew up in Memphis I was Born in Memphis but Grew up it Aurora Colorado

[@otpmetairie4862]

Very nice!

[@marklovorn3758]

This bridge is currently closed due to a crack in the bridge support.

[@graymikep64]

Won't open ever

[@JohnnieV]

Are all your videos the same speed?? 2x?

[@504RoadTrips]

See John Vlog not always, but I just discovered that if I import my 30 FPS dash cam video into a 60 FPS workspace, it doubles every frame. So when I go 2x, it deletes all the duplicate frames and plays at 60 FPS and gives smoother video. They’ve always been sped up to some degree. I vary the speed depending on how much there is to see.

[@JohnnieV]

504RoadTrips that’s good stuff. I need to buy a decent computer. Maybe a Mac. I kinda know how to work with iMovie. No clue on anything on pc since all I have is free editing programs.

[@504RoadTrips]

See John Vlog I think CyberLink powerdirector is worth the investment.

[@JohnnieV]

504RoadTrips gotta get a capable computer first.