Louisville’s rail connection across the Ohio River took shape through the Louisville & Jeffersonville Bridge Company’s original plans for the Big Four Bridge. A Louisville Journal account of September 10, 1889, placed the bridge at the foot of the island opposite the foot of Shelby Street, extending at right angles across the river. The approach was described as 9,000 feet long, and the bridge proper was estimated to cost about $1,550,000. Work on the bridge began on October 12, 1889. Construction advanced with great energy but under difficult and discouraging circumstances. On October 12, 1890, a terrible accident occurred while the foundations were being built on the southern side of the river. Another disaster followed during construction. A Louisville Commercial report of January 23, 1893, said the bridge being built between Louisville and Jeffersonville had added more victims to a project already marked by repeated fatalities when a channel span gave way and forty-five men were carried down. The bridge was opened for business on August 7, 1895.