There are other bridges over the Mississippi that are shared between auto traffic and trains. There are double-deck bridges such as the bridges at the Quad Cities, Fort Madison, Keokuk, and St. Louis. There are also those where the auto lanes were hung off the side of the bridge, such as the two Long bridges and the Harahan. But in this case, the trains and cars run side by side through the truss structure. That is unique on the lower Mississippi river. It must have been thrilling to meet both a train and oncoming traffic on those narrow 9 foot wide lanes. Old timers report that trucks would ride their tires on the railing and still smack their mirrors on oncoming trucks from time to time.

While the bridge closed to auto traffic in 1998, it still supports rail traffic. The small town of Delta, Louisiana, was left with a 6 mile detour to get to Vicksburg when the bridge was closed. At the moment, the locals are trying to decide if they would repair the roadway and reopen the bridge, leave it closed, or develop it into a linear park much like the Chain Of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis.

The Vicksburg bridge is configured in the river much like the Greenville Bridge just downstream from a sharp curve where the river recently changed course. A similar cross-current and the outflow of the Yazoo River combine to make this the most challenging Mississippi River bridge to navigate.

Shortly after the bridge was built, an underwater landslide caused the first two piers to shift in position. As a result, the metal work leans just slightly on the east end of the bridge.

The river itself has an interesting history in Vicksburg. The city was the last major fortress holdout for the south on the great river. Its view high over the city prevented the Union from moving past Vicksburg, and the vast swamps in the area prevented the Union army from flanking the city. Grant attempted to cut a new diversion canal to reroute the river away from the city so it could be bypassed. This effort failed, but the Union eventually prevailed when it took on those swamps. Later on, the river picked a new channel during a flood, and left Vicksburg high and dry, with the river passing only the very southernmost part of the town. It was desired to restore water to the city waterfront, but moving the Mississippi back was beyond the technology of the day. An idea was eventually formulated to divert the Yazoo river, which flowed into the Mississippi upstream of Vicksburg, and dump the water from the Yazoo into the old river channel upstream of Vicksburg. That effectively rerouted the Yazoo River past Vicksburg, giving the historic city a water front once again.

Note—there are two other bridges where trains and automobiles share the same right of way, the McKinley Bridge in St. Louis (prior to its renovation) and the Highway 115 Bridge near Camp Ripley in Minnesota.