The lumber industry and railroads depended on each other, and together they made West Helena a boom town where work was abundant, wages were good, sawmills and steam locomotives sounded throughout the day, and smoke hung in the air as loaded trains moved to the river or north toward Kansas City and the west coast. As a product of the new century, West Helena showed how industry and railroads could fuel the American dream. In 1946, the federal interstate highway system began, and by the early 1950s cars and trucks were common nationwide, bringing a decline in railroad traffic. The completion of the Mississippi River highway bridge at Helena made local industries less dependent on rail transportation, the last transfer boat, the Pelican, ceased operation in 1971, and the railroads left West Helena. In time, the old M&NA right-of-way became the U.S. 49 bypass, and although the railroads are gone, their legacy remains visible where tracks once crossed the town's industrial center.