Before 1817, the first settler crossings here used a log ferry operated by Robert Irwin. The first bridge, built by Prescott and Bemis, was destroyed in the flood of 1855. A second wooden covered bridge was completed in 1869 by ex-slave Horace King. The third crossing was the Henry-Clay cantilever bridge, opened in 1925. The fourth is the present McKemie Bridge, opened in 1973. Long before Christ, the river was the number one highway for local prehistorical people.