After late 1920s legislation in Texas and Oklahoma, the two states cooperated to build free highway bridges across the Red River for rapidly increasing highway traffic. One of these bridges stood near Colbert Bridge, a toll bridge descended from the mid-19th century Colbert's Ferry. When the Free Bridge was ready to open in early July 1931, the Red River Bridge Company, which operated Colbert Bridge, obtained a federal restraining order to prevent the opening until contractual payments had been made to compensate the company for anticipated loss. Texas Governor Ross Sterling complied, but Oklahoma Governor William Murray, who was not a party to the contract between the Texas Highway Commission and the Red River Bridge Company, asked Sterling to join him in protesting the injunction, and Sterling refused. Murray then ordered the removal of barricades erected by the Texas Highway Commission, and for twelve hours traffic flowed freely across the bridge. By July 17, Texas Rangers guarded the southern side, while Oklahoma highway crews rerouted traffic from Colbert Bridge to Preston Bridge several miles away and dismantled the approach to Colbert Bridge from Oklahoma. After tensions rose in the summer heat, the injunction was suspended, and the Texas Rangers opened the bridge on Labor Day, 1931. It remained in service until 1995, when a new structure replaced it, and a portion of the Free Bridge was placed in a park in Colbert, Oklahoma, about two miles north.