Walking around Memphis, Mud Island

We head out of our hotel in  downtown Memphis, turning away from Beale Street and immediately pass through a beautiful, quiet small park in the downtown area.

Downtown park

After the park, things get more serious and we find the city hall and the federal office building, much more modern architecture than the historic buildings we've been wandering through in the downtown area.

Serious government buildings and plazas

Nearby is a monument with the flags of the nations which have, at various times, claimed the land on which the city of Memphis is located:  Spain, France, Great Britain, the United States of America, and the Confederate States.

Monument to claims, past and present

Just past the monument is a bridge to Mud Island, a small peninsula in the Mississippi River with residential space, a museum, restaurants, an amphitheater, and a 2,000 foot (610 meter) long scale model of the lower Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans (called the Riverwalk).

The Mississippi River museum on Mud Island presents the history of the lower Missippi River Valley over the last 10,000 years, with over 5,000 artifacts.  We enter the pedestrian bridge and cross over.

Bridge to Mud Island

The bridge offers perspectives of the bridges across the Mississippi, the river itself, and a great view of the Bass Pro Shops pyramid megastore with 535,000 square feet that includes shopping, a hotel, restaurants, an aquarium, a cypress swamp with alligator pools and duck aviaries, a bowling alley, an archery range, a pistol range, and an outdoor observation deck at the apex.  Not to mention the BAss Pro mega store with hunting, boating, fishing, and outdoor gear.

Bridges

River

Bass Pro Shops

A section of the Mississippi River model

Approaching the end of the bridge, we are welcomed to Mud Island with a few pictures of famous Memphis scenes

Elvis, riverboat

We head down the stairs to explore the island.