Transportation played a major role in Elkin's 20th-century prosperity. The Southern Railroad Depot, built in 1891, was located one block north on South Bridge Street and serviced passenger and freight trains daily, enduring massive flooding in 1916 and 1940 before its last passenger train departed in 1955. The Hugh G. Chatham Memorial Bridge, built in 1931, linked Elkin to Highway 67 and brought vehicles and pedestrians into the center of a thriving textile, tobacco, and furniture economy. Located two blocks east, the structure spanned 1,508 feet over the Yadkin River.