In 1930 organizers from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida formed the Taft Memorial Highway Association to promote automobile tourism along a route named for William Howard Taft, the nation's twenty-seventh president, stretching from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Inspired by similar associations nationwide, the founding members lobbied for modern roads and bridges along their selected route, and Morenci organizers took an active part. Although the association ceased operations during World War II, the state highway bridge over Silver Creek remained a legacy of local effort within a national movement. In 1935 the Michigan State Highway Department built the steel-beamed Murray D. Van Wagoner Bridge over Silver Creek at a cost of $35,700 through a federal relief project that provided work during the Great Depression. The Morenci community and boosters from the Taft Memorial Highway Association held a dedication ceremony attended by 5,000 people, where Murray D. Van Wagoner, head of the state Highway Department and a future governor of Michigan, gave the keynote speech. Adjacent stands the 1893 Sterling Road truss bridge, relocated in 2004 from nearby Hillsdale County by the Michigan Department of Transportation for use as a crossing on the pedestrian trail.