Believe it or not, I was actually the last person to cross that Tallahatchie bridge before it collapsed. I grew up not far from there.
I’ve crossed 2 Tallahatchie bridges in my trucking career. Both in the delta flats. Easy to remember doing so because of the song. And like the one in the photo, they didn’t seem to be high enough for a jump into the water to be dangerous. Unless you belly flopped, or dove head first into shallow water. Mud can break a neck.
I think it was spring of 1975, a teen from my old neighborhood did that off an old country bridge over Edwards River in Mercer county, IL. Looked just like the one in the picture, but not as long. It was a back roads high school grad party, with plenty of booze no doubt. He ended up in a wheelchair the rest of his life.