With bicycle and pedestrian bridge, Main Street riding Harahan’s coat tails

The tantalizing prospect of a bicycle and pedestrian bridge linking two states and cities did the heavy lifting for an elusive face-lift of Main Street's dog-eared infrastructure.

A planned $29.8 million project connecting Downtown to West Memphis's Broadway will contribute $10.7 million and possibly more toward fixing the Main Street Trolley mall and making pedestrian-friendly connections to it, officials said.

Downtown boosters credited private sector involvement, spearheaded by bicycling trail advocate Charles McVean, with helping this project succeed where a previous grant application had failed