All interstate traffic into Tennessee blocked for hours amid issues on bridges

WATCH: All interstate traffic into Tennessee blocked for hours amid issues on bridges

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Backups and delays continued Wednesday night around the bridges between Memphis and Arkansas, at one point causing all lanes coming from Arkansas to be shut down on both the I-40 and I-55 bridges and causing millions of dollars of commerce to sit as the delays affected some of the busiest commercial transport routes in the country.

It happened after the Memphis Fire Department reported that firefighters were looking for someone seen under the I-40 bridge.

For hours, unsuspecting motorists were stuck in traffic.

Mark Yarbrough passed through I-40 just as crews began closing all lanes.

"They were looking over the side of the bridge," he said of officials’ actions as he drove by.

WATCH: Questions remain after bridges between Memphis and Arkansas shut down for hours

Hours into the event, a bucket allowed crews a closer look. Soon after, police reported there was no one there at all.

A spokesman for Memphis Police, though the department had released the information that no one had been found, referred to the Memphis Fire.

A spokesperson for Memphis Fire had not returned multiple requests for comment by news time Wednesday.

Around the same time, I-55 eastbound was at a standstill as well after a fatal crash.

Cher Conner watched from home. She talked with a reporter at a Memphis gas station near the exit.

Of how far the backup went, she "couldn't tell you. That's how far back it went."

Conner said she has been stuck in snarled traffic on the same bridge.

"It's kind of scary, especially if you don't have the right amount of gas," she said.

Both a heavy police and fire presence are in the middle of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge along Interstate 40 Wednesday morning.

The Memphis Police Department (MPD) was told by TDOT that a person had gone over the edge of I-40 bridge underneath the side while walking on the platform.

According to MPD, with the assistance of TDOT, no one was found when they checked under the bridge.

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