Put your hazards on the second something feels wrong, before you’re sure it’s serious. If you’re still rolling and there’s any way to reach the Tennessee or Arkansas side before you commit to the span itself, take it. If the car dies mid-bridge and you’re stuck in a live travel lane, stay belted in. There’s no wide paved shoulder out there to walk to, and getting out into moving interstate traffic on a river crossing is more dangerous than sitting still. Once you’ve actually stopped moving and you’re not blocking a lane you can safely get out of, call from inside the car. Memphis crosses the Mississippi two ways, the Hernando de Soto Bridge carrying I-40 and the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge carrying I-55, and neither one gives you a real place to pull off mid-span.
Two bridges, one river, no shoulder to hide on
The Hernando de Soto Bridge is the one most people picture when they think of driving into Memphis, a tied-arch bridge locals call the M Bridge for the shape of its two center arches, lit gold and blue at night. It carries I-40 traffic between West Memphis, Arkansas and downtown, and its arch section doesn’t give a stalled car anywhere to go except the travel lane it’s already sitting in.
The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, a few miles south and known around here as the old bridge, carries I-55. It’s the older of the two crossings by a lot, built well before modern interstate standards existed, and it wasn’t designed with a modern breakdown lane any more than the Hernando de Soto was. Both bridges move heavy truck volume around the clock, so a flat tire or a dead battery mid-span isn’t just inconvenient, it’s a real hazard sitting in a live lane with nowhere to go.
The practical version: hazards on the instant you notice trouble, before the bridge if you can manage it. If you make it to the Tennessee or Arkansas approach before the car actually quits, that’s where you want to be, not mid-river. Check your gauges, your tires, and your fuel before you commit to either crossing if you have any warning at all. If you don’t get that warning and the car dies on the span itself, stay belted, keep your hazards on, and call once you’re stopped and it’s safe to do it from inside the car. We’ll get a truck moving toward you.
What the 2021 crack taught Memphis drivers about detours
On May 11, 2021, inspectors found a structural crack in a steel tension-tie girder on the Hernando de Soto Bridge, roughly 900 feet of it, on the bridge’s north truss. Tennessee and Arkansas transportation officials shut the bridge down completely, both to vehicle traffic and to river traffic underneath, and coordinated with the Coast Guard while they worked it out. Every vehicle that would normally have crossed on I-40 got diverted onto the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge instead, at a scale that made national news. Press coverage at the time put the Hernando de Soto’s normal daily load at more than 41,000 vehicles, a press-reported figure rather than an official TDOT count, but it captures how much traffic one bridge was carrying and how much the other one had to absorb overnight. The bridge stayed closed to vehicle traffic for the better part of three months.
Here’s what that taught Memphis: there are exactly two ways across this river on the interstate system, and if one goes down, everything funnels onto the other. It’s not an abstract risk. It happened, it made national headlines, and it’s part of why knowing your options before you’re mid-bridge matters more here than it does in most cities.
TDOT HELP: what’s free, and what it won’t do
Tennessee runs a free roadside patrol on Memphis’s busiest interstates called HELP, the Highway Emergency Local Patrol. In the Memphis area, HELP trucks run Monday through Sunday, 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., covering I-40 (including the river crossings), I-55 from state line to state line, the full I-240 loop around the city, and SR-385/Bill Morris Parkway.
On those routes, during those hours, HELP will change a flat tire, deliver fuel, handle minor mechanical trouble, and clear a stalled or disabled vehicle out of the travel lane, all for free. What it won’t do is tow your car anywhere. HELP’s job is getting you out of the lane and out of danger, not getting your car to a shop or back to your house. Once you’re off the highway or your breakdown falls outside HELP’s hours or routes, that’s a private tow, and that’s us. Call (858) 925-5546 once you’re safely stopped and we’ll get a truck headed your way.
After 8:30 p.m., the roads don’t get quiet
HELP trucks go off duty at 8:30 p.m., but Memphis traffic doesn’t. The FedEx Superhub at Memphis International Airport runs roughly 250 flights a night, most of them landing and taking off between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., and that overnight sort operation puts real shift-change and delivery traffic on the interstates in hours a lot of towing companies simply aren’t staffed for. Somewhere in that window, often in the 2 to 4 a.m. stretch, Memphis roads are carrying a genuine working night shift, not just late-night stragglers.
That’s exactly the gap a 24/7 tow line is built for. If your car goes down at 3 a.m. on I-55 headed toward the airport or on I-240 near the Lamar Ave interchange, HELP isn’t coming and you’re not imagining that the roads are busier than they should be at that hour. Call us and we’ll have someone moving.
Break down heading into Arkansas? Different state, same phone number
Cross the middle of either bridge heading west and you’re not in Tennessee anymore. West Memphis and Marion sit on the Arkansas side, right where I-40 and I-55 physically meet the river. If your car goes down past that midpoint, you’re now in a different state’s jurisdiction for anything involving law enforcement or a private-property tow, even though the road looks the same and the traffic doesn’t change. What doesn’t change on our end is the dispatch. One call, one phone number, and we send a truck whether you’re stranded on the Tennessee side, the Arkansas side, or right at the crossing itself. See our West Memphis service page for more on how we cover that side of the river.
Lamar Ave and the heavy-duty side of bridge trouble
Not every bridge-adjacent breakdown is a passenger car. US-78/Lamar Avenue, the corridor feeding traffic toward both river crossings, is TDOT’s own pick for the most congested state road in the Memphis region, and it’s been a primary freight artery since the early-to-mid 20th century. An 18-wheeler that loses a tire or blows an air line approaching either bridge on Lamar Ave isn’t a job a passenger tow truck can handle, and it’s not a call that should sit for long on a corridor that busy. If that’s your situation, our heavy-duty towing crews run the equipment for it.
Check TDOT SmartWay before you cross
TDOT’s SmartWay system gives you live traffic cameras, incident reports, and construction updates for Memphis’s interstates, including both river crossings, before you’re already committed to one of them. It’s worth a look before any drive that puts you on I-40 or I-55 near the river, especially if you’ve had any warning signs from your car already.
For more on what to do the moment your car won’t start or overheats before you even get near a bridge, see our guides on a car that won’t start and a vehicle after overheating, or check our emergency towing service.
Frequently asked questions
What do I do if my car breaks down in the middle of a Memphis bridge?
Put your hazards on immediately. If you’re stuck in a live travel lane, stay belted in rather than getting out into traffic. Once you’ve stopped and it’s safe, call for a tow from inside the car.
Does TDOT HELP tow my car off the bridge?
No. HELP clears your vehicle out of the travel lane and handles free minor assistance like a flat tire, fuel, or a jump, but it doesn’t tow vehicles to a shop or home. That’s a private tow.
What are TDOT HELP’s hours and routes in Memphis?
Monday through Sunday, 6:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., covering I-40 including the river crossings, I-55 state line to state line, the full I-240 loop, and SR-385/Bill Morris Parkway.
What happened when the Hernando de Soto Bridge cracked in 2021?
On May 11, 2021, inspectors found a structural crack in a roughly 900-foot steel tension-tie girder. TDOT and Arkansas officials shut the bridge down completely and diverted all I-40 river traffic onto the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge for the better part of three months.
I broke down heading into Arkansas past the middle of the bridge. Does that change anything?
You’re now in Arkansas jurisdiction rather than Tennessee’s, which can matter for law enforcement or a private-property situation. It doesn’t change your call to us. One number gets a truck moving to either side of the river.
Where can I check bridge traffic before I drive?
TDOT’s SmartWay system has live cameras and incident reports for I-40 and I-55 around Memphis, including both river crossings.