The Arkansas side of the river, as seen from Memphis, is the city of West Memphis and the flat farmland of Crittenden County — reached by two vehicle bridges and one pedestrian bridge, and marking the start of the Arkansas Delta. It is a separate state, a separate county, and a separate set of laws, a short drive from downtown.
What is actually across the river from Memphis?
Directly across the Mississippi River from downtown Memphis is West Memphis, Arkansas, the largest city in Crittenden County. It is an incorporated Arkansas municipality with its own government, schools, and police department — not a Memphis neighbourhood, despite the shared name. The county seat itself is Marion, Arkansas, a few miles further inland.
West Memphis grew up around the interstate junction of I-40 and I-55, which meet just west of the river crossings. That junction shaped the city around trucking, freight, and warehousing rather than tourism, and that industrial character is still visible from the highway.
How do you get from Memphis to the Arkansas side?
Two interstate bridges carry vehicle traffic: the Hernando de Soto Bridge (I-40) and the older Memphis–Arkansas Bridge (I-55), both spanning the Mississippi between downtown Memphis and West Memphis. A separate structure carries only foot and bicycle traffic.
- The Hernando de Soto Bridge (I-40) is the newer, higher-volume crossing.
- The Memphis–Arkansas Bridge (I-55) is the older of the pair and predates the interstate system in its original construction.
- The Big River Crossing runs along a former railroad bridge and is reserved for pedestrians and cyclists, connecting downtown Memphis to the Arkansas riverbank.
For a fuller breakdown of which bridge does what and how the crossing actually works on foot, by bike, or by car, see how to cross the river between Memphis and the Arkansas side and the separate explainer on what the Big River Crossing is and how long the walk is.
What is Southland Casino Racing?
Southland is a gaming and greyhound-racing facility in West Memphis, licensed under Arkansas state gaming regulation. It began as a dog track and has operated for decades under Arkansas’s racing and gaming laws, which differ from Tennessee’s; Tennessee does not license casino-style gaming in the same way. Readers wanting current details on races, gaming, and hours should check Southland’s own site directly, since operating details of a licensed gaming facility change and are not something this site verifies independently.
What does the land itself look like on the Arkansas side?
The bluff that Memphis sits on ends at the river. The Arkansas side is the floodplain — flat, low, and agricultural, protected from the river by an engineered levee system maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Memphis District. This is the visible start of the Arkansas Delta, geologically and economically continuous with the Mississippi Delta on the Tennessee and Mississippi sides of the river.
For the broader definition of where the Delta begins and what the term actually describes, see what the Mississippi Delta is, and where it begins.
Is there a historic riverfront district on the Arkansas side?
Not directly across from Memphis. West Memphis itself is a working city rather than a historic riverfront district, and its riverbank has none of the parks or promenades built up on the Memphis side. The historic river towns worth knowing about on the Arkansas side are further downstream, not directly opposite downtown.
Helena, Arkansas, roughly an hour and a half south of Memphis by road, is the best known of these. It carries a documented blues history and hosts the King Biscuit Festival, an annual event built around that history. Details on the town and the festival are covered separately in what Helena, Arkansas and the King Biscuit Festival are.
Does anyone from Memphis actually go to the Arkansas side regularly?
Residents cross for specific, practical reasons rather than sightseeing: gaming at Southland, cheaper fuel near the interstate exits, or simply passing through on I-40 or I-55 toward Little Rock or points west. Arkansas’s alcohol and gaming regulations differ from Tennessee’s in specific ways, which is part of why West Memphis functions the way it does; readers curious about the Tennessee side of that comparison can start with how Tennessee’s alcohol laws work in Memphis.
For a visitor building an itinerary, the Arkansas side is rarely a destination in its own right unless the trip is specifically toward Helena, the King Biscuit Festival, or further into the Delta. It is more commonly seen from a car window while crossing, or from the walkway of the Big River Crossing looking back at the Memphis skyline.
What about flood history on the Arkansas side?
The 1927 Mississippi River flood is the reference point for how seriously the levee system on the Arkansas side is engineered and maintained. Large stretches of Arkansas Delta farmland were underwater that year, and the levee and flood-control infrastructure built and expanded afterward — much of it under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — is why the floodplain west of the river can be farmed at all today. The Corps’ Memphis District, whose own site documents the current levee and flood-control system, remains the authority on how that infrastructure is managed now.
How does this fit into a Memphis visit or a Memphis life?
For a first-time visitor with limited time, the Arkansas side is mostly a backdrop — visible from Tom Lee Park, from the riverfront, or from the middle of the Big River Crossing — rather than a stop on the itinerary. For someone planning a longer trip or a day trip further into the Delta, it is worth treating as a distinct destination rather than an extension of Memphis.
General planning resources for both approaches are gathered on the site’s practical planning hub, which covers getting around and the riverfront, and the day trips archive, which covers destinations further into Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee beyond the city itself. For what the Memphis riverfront itself holds, on the Tennessee side, see what lives along the Memphis riverfront.
Access Memphis is an independent guide written from published, checkable sources. We have not visited the places described here and we do not publish personal recommendations or invented ‘local favourites’ — where something is singled out as notable, we say who says so. Opening times, fares, closures and prices change at short notice, so treat everything here as a starting point and confirm with the museum, operator or venue directly before building a day around it. We give no advice on visas, insurance, health or safety; use your own government’s official guidance for those.
Featured image: Photo by Thomas R Machnitzki, source, CC BY 3.0
