Chester Bridge

In the film (In the Heat of the Night), the bridge appears in a 2-minute segment starting at the 27-minute mark. The first camera angle (see screen capture, apparently shot in the afternoon) is at the east (Illinois) end of the bridge, looking southwest across the Mississippi River. The scene shows a highway sign in the foreground, mounted on the bridge, saying "Mississippi River - Arkansas 49", with the outline of the State of Arkansas, which of course is intended to be the Mississippi-Arkansas state border. In fact, there IS no Arkansas route 49; it is fictional, although there certainly are state routes 48 and 50. Arkansas state highway road signs do show the outline of the state, but (I believe) do not have the word "Arkansas" on them. And of course, the scene is supposed to show the Mississippi side of the bridge, so any highway sign mounted on the bridge would show the Mississippi state highway number, and not the Arkansas highway number, which would pick up only on the far side of the bridge.

The Chester Bridge is 450 km (290 miles) north of Sparta, Mississippi (the real town that is supposed to be the subject of the film), and 27 km (17 miles) south-southwest of the town of Sparta, Illinois, where most of the movie was filmed in the fall of 1967 as a stand-in for its southern namesake. Sidney Poitier would not agree to star in the movie if it was filmed south of the Mason-Dixon line, because of the racial tensions in the south in 1967.

Michael Watson

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I would agree; I also think that it should have its own listing, since it is a separate bridge. Being a 1942 steel stringer, it's not the most exciting bridge in the world, but it's old enough to have at least some historic significance, and so should have its own page.

So does it deserve it's own listing? Seems a bit odd for it to show up in the middle of the of the photos of the Mississippi river bridge.

Fmiser,

The Chester Bridge's south end terminates on Horse Island, and if you follow 51 to the other side of Horse Island (approx. another 1/4 mile south), the Horse Island Chute Bridge carries 51 off of Horse Island onto the mainland.

There is a photo of Horse Island Chute bridge. It is quite clear it is not the the truss bridge over the Mississippi river.

But I'm not finding any other listing for it on the site.

So where does it belong?

The street view is pretty interesting. In it you can see that the river is flooded and they have set up a traffic light to limit traffic on the bridge.

Andy: You are right. It was used as the backdrop when the sheriff and his deputies were chasing the man suspected of killing the industrialist who was going to build a factory in Sparta, Mississippi.

If I am correct this bridge was used in a scene of the movie "In the Heat of the Night," during which a prisoner is seen being being chased from "Mississippi" into "Arkansas".

The movie is set in the town of Sparta, Ms., which in the movie the town of Sparta, Il. was where the filming took place.