Mile 737.0 - Memphis “M” Bridge (Hernando de Soto Bridge)

737 Memphis “M” Bridge (Hernando de Soto Bridge)

Now you can enjoy the distinct pleasure of floating under the elegant “M” Bridge. This beautiful “through arch” bridge was designed symmetrically from center pier in the shape of an eagle or hawk, its wings outstretched and forever soaring above the roiling currents of the Mighty Mississippi River! You too will feel like you are flying as you soar under the rounded steel arches and dark concrete roadway in your canoe or kayak. If there is no tow traffic, stay in the fast water through open span river left where the fast water is coursing underneath and you are well positioned for pull out into the Memphis Harbor. Downstreamers normally choose this same span for the fast water. In high water upstreamers normally charge under the next span over, the western span (river right west of center pier), but in low water they have to use the eastern span to find enough depth of water.

Completed in 1973 this bridge was originally named the Hernando de Soto Bridge for that explorer, but locals call it simply “M” Bridge or “New Bridge.” At night, the bridge is illuminated by 200 sodium vapor lights along its M shape structure. The bridge was first lit on September 5, 1986, after $373,000 of private funds had been raised to fund the cost and installation of the lights. But the lights and their mesmerizing reflections confused towboat pilots so the City of Memphis installed a remote switch to toggle the lights on and off while the vessel passes under the bridge. During the Great Flood of 2011, the bridge became dark for about 2 months because the transformers that supply the electricity for the lights were removed to prevent damage to them by flood waters. The bridge was re-lit in a ceremony which occurred on June 21, 2011. Since 2000, the bridge has been under a seismic retrofitting project, which allows it to withstand a 7.7 magnitude earthquake. This is being done since the bridge is located within the New Madrid Earthquake Zone and would not have been able to sustain that magnitude of an earthquake.

(Information gleaned from website Historic Memphis Bridges:
http://www.historic-memphis.com/memphis-historic/bridges/bridges.html)

During the 2011 Flood myself and 2 other canoeists flew under the M Bridge at 10 knots with water piling high in a distinctive dome shape against center pier. [You can see this effect in a YouTube video Surfing a 300-Mile long Wave] In retrospect it looked something like the domed nose of an empty freighter pushing a pile of water. Extreme paddlers eddy out into the backwash downstream of the piers, but do so at your own risk and only if you are capable of self-rescue.