There was immediate, vocal opposition to the October 1998 announcement of construction of a four-lane vehicular bridge to the agriculture campus. The 1994 master plan had called for a pedestrian bridge, and campus sentiment was strong that a pedestrian, rather than a four-lane vehicular bridge, was preferable. On January 27, 1999, some 150 students gathered in the university center plaza to protest the bridge, a rally organized by the student organization Citizens for a Pedestrian-Friendly Campus.
On February 11th CPFC sponsored a forum on the bridge issue in the Hodges Library auditorium. More than two hundred people attended. The forum featured panelists President Joe Johnson; Bill Moore, a TDOT official; and Professors John Nolt and Frank van Manen, on behalf of the opposition. At the meeting, members of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians voiced concern that the widened road would cut into the burial mound adjacent to the proposed bridge. On March 2 the Faculty Senate unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by CPFC calling for a halt to construction of the bridge, and Faculty Representative Mark Miller took the resolution to the board of trustees. The resolution called for halting construction to evaluate whether it was the best alternative for linking the two campuses. On March 3 the SGA also passed a bill in opposition to the bridge. That bill passed 38–3.
TDOT reviewed plans for the bridge because of possible conflicts with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the National Historic Preservation Act and altered the project to end at Chapman Drive to present no direct conflict with the burial mound. A peaceful march, sponsored by CPFC and SPEAK, was held on April 22 and went from the UC Plaza to the agriculture campus by way of the greenway. Prior to the march, a rally featuring speeches by History Professor Todd Diacon and student leader Cameron Brooks was held. Approximately 230 people marched. Scarlett Hayes announced that the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians had filed an injunction to prevent construction. On September 20, the Faculty Senate unanimously passed a stronger resolution, which called for plans for the bridge to be abandoned. The construction, as modified so as not to impact the Cherokee burial mound and for budgetary reasons, went forward.