A In 1909, a ship ran aground in the Mississippi River in front of the downtown area of Memphis. Over the years, a sandbar formed, which grew into a large island. This island was developed in the 1980's. A park includes a concert venue and museums. To gain access to this area, a combination pedestrian bridge and monorail train was built to cross the river channel, which is now known as Wolf Harbor. People cross the bridge via a walkway inside the truss structure, while trains hang suspended under the truss.

The Mud Island Monorail was featured in the movie The Firm starring Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman. During a foot chase seen near the climax of the movie, Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) was chased across the bridge and back by a mafia hit-man (Tobin Bell). This otherwise excellent movie gets high marks from this author for showing scenes from the Memphis waterfront.