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(continued)
Successfully navigating the political
shoals of Washington  during
the Depression required the efforts of many people,
but history remembers Mayor Smith and John A. Fox as
the two men most responsible for bringing a bridge to
Greenville. In 1937 and 1938, Smith and Fox spent weeks
in Washington drumming up support. The two spent so
much time at their efforts, Smith’s Queen City barrel
hoop business would eventually go bankrupt from his
continued absence.
 The
first order of business was to get Congress to pass
a law authorizing the bridge. John A. Fox, whose national
network of friends reached all the way to the nation’s
capitol, wrote to Mississippi Congressman W.M. Whittington
about the matter in May of 1937, and was told the timing
for his request was not good. While considering what
to do next, Fox was "agreeably surprised"
to pick up the newspaper days later and read that Congressman
Wade Kitchens of Magnolia, Arkansas, had introduced
a bill requesting permission for the bridge. Fox worked
Capitol Hill with Kitchens, Whittington and other friends
including Senators Pat Harrison of Mississippi and Joe
T. Robinson of Arkansas. The Governor of Arkansas, Carl
E. Bailey, had been an ally from the early days of the
bridge campaign. During May, June and July, Fox took
to the road to meet with Chambers of Commerce from Birmingham,
Alabama, to Lubbock, Texas, and got them to send wires
to Congress in support of the measure. A new bridge
across the Mississippi would have economic benefits
that would reach far beyond the Mississippi Delta.
The bill authorizing the bridge was approved
in August of 1937 and signed by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt. Other needed approvals were gained from the
War Department and the Mississippi Legislature.
 With
all permissions granted, Smith and Fox turned their
focus to financing. How much would a new bridge truly
cost? Smith and Fox hired Ash Howard Needles and Tammen
of Kansas City, Missouri, an engineering consultant
with a large portfolio of major bridges, to conduct
a study and make the estimate. The consultant determined
that Warfield Landing, the site used by the Greenville
Ferry, was not a suitable site for a bridge. Their recommendation
was to build the bridge downstream, below Lake Chicot
on the Arkansas side, in a straight stretch of the river
with stable banks. The new location meant long and expensive
approaches to the bridge would be needed. The new estimate
for construction: $4.25 million.
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