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is the largest city in Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 27,666 at the 2000 census, with an estimated population of 28,181 in 2005, ranking it as the state's 15th largest city, behind Benton. It is considered part of the Memphis metropolitan area, and is located directly across the Mississippi River from Memphis.
Native Americans tribes known as Mound Builders were the first inhabitants of the West Memphis area. The first Europeans in the area were probably explorer Hernando de Soto and his followers.
West Memphis occupies an area that once included the towns of Hopefield, Bragg and Hulbert. Founded as a logging camp near the site of the former Spanish Fort Esperanza, built in 1797, until 1927 it was known as "Bragg's Mill". The name "West Memphis" came into use in the early 1900s because lumber shipped from the Memphis market to foreign buyers brought higher prices. With the coming of the first rail bridge, the Frisco Bridge, in 1892 and the first automobile bridge, the Harahan Bridge, in 1917, West Memphis began to grow. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge for automobile use opened in 1949 and the I-40 or Hernando de Soto Bridge was dedicated in 1972.