The Big Dam Bridge opened in September 2006 and carries walkers and cyclists across the Arkansas River between Little Rock and North Little Rock, 90 feet above the water at its highest point. Murray Lock and Dam No. 7, part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, was not designed with a crossing, so the bridge was built as a modification of the dam structure, with the dam about 30 feet below the deck. Sources give its length as 4,122 or 4,226 feet, of which about 3,462 feet spans the river itself.
Pulaski County Judge Floyd Villines directed almost $17 million in local, state and federal funds to the project. A historical marker at the bridge calls it the longest pedestrian and bicycle bridge in the world designed and built for that purpose, and the Society of American Travel Writers named it one of the top ten bridges to visit in the United States in 2012. The deck is 14 feet wide with eight observation areas that have benches.
The bridge links the trails of the Arkansas River Trail with parkland on both banks, the Little Rock end near Murray Park and the North Little Rock end at Cook's Landing Park. Every July the Big Dam Bridge Twilight 5K crosses it, and every September the Big Dam Bridge 100 cycling tour uses it on routes from 15 to 105 miles.
The closest stops worth working into your route