In 1916 when the university was deeded Cherokee Farm by Knox County, it additionally got the private bridge that provided access to it across the Tennessee River. In 1912 William J. Oliver had sought to have the county plank the Cherokee Bridge and open up a way to Atlanta. He promised to open a highway one-hundred-feet wide through the development of the Cherokee Land Company to connect with the bridge. The county court voted $200 for an examination of the bridge but, based on the 1913 report, decided it would be inadvisable to assume responsibility for the bridge.
When the State Highway Department announced it would build a new bridge (Buck Karnes Bridge) between the agriculture campus and Cherokee Farm, they also indicated they would not remove the old bridge. President Morgan tried to give the old bridge to the city fathers, but they refused “unless it were delivered intact at the foot of Henley Street where it might be of use and saving.” In 1930 Morgan attempted to give it as a gift to the Knox County Road Commissioners, who suggested that he wrap it up and deliver it, but finally the Road Commission accepted it. The student newspaper (Orange and White) noted in 1930 that “it was the first thing the school had ever tried to give away.”