The Billy Hocker Bridge was the first bridge across the Canadian connecting Lexington and Purcell. It opened for traffic on September 29, 1899, and quickly became a vital transportation link, with up to 60 teams a day crossing at all hours. A flood destroyed the bridge on October 5, 1904, and seven years passed before Dorset Carter's $65,000 double intersection Warren Through Truss linked the towns again. That bridge opened on December 14, 1911, with a gala celebration, and in the 1930s it became the center of controversy as the public demanded free crossings. After a protracted fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court, the bridge was declared free on March 4, 1933.