# Overnight parking at Memphis Central Station?



## Jonathan (Sep 30, 2022)

Per what I read from the City of Memphis, there is free parking at Memphis Central Station.


Is that all the time?
Overnight included? Specifically, taking an 8 day cruise out of Memphis to NOL then returning by train.
Parking Safe?
Area safe to walk in the evening to local hotel?


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## Mike G (Oct 1, 2022)

I live 18 miles South of Memphis in Southaven ( Mississippi ) and personally I wouldn’t .


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## George Harris (Oct 1, 2022)

I would NOT walk from Central Station to anywhere at night.
What hotel are you thinking of? 
Think the free parking at the station is no more as well. Since the former ICRR office building over the top of Central Station is now a hotel, I think parking with them might be possible, but at a price. I would not go for any open lot anywhere in the downtown area, either. The likelihood of the car still being there when you got back would be low, and it still being complete near zero. If you have a hotel set up, talk to them about parking for the duration of your absence. 
There is a nice little museum in the first floor of the station near the old main entrance, but I doubt it would be open at the time of the northbound CNO arrival. 
I think the cruise boats dock at what is called the Beale Street Landing, but it is not actually at the foot of Beale Street itself, but about a block or so further south. There is a parking lot that the local boat cruise refers you to at Beale Street, but it is east of the railroad and north of Beale, and expensive. Again, I think to park there overnight would be unwise, and I do not know if multi-day parking is permitted.
Take a ride up and down Main Street on the streetcar if you have time. The south end of the line is right outside the street level entrance to Central Station.


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## Jonathan (Oct 3, 2022)

Thanks to both of you, especially to George Harris for his detailed information. I'll consider alternatives.


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## merkelman06 (Oct 3, 2022)

Parking is now controlled by the hotel and you pay via the Premium Parking app. There are signs all over the parking lot with instructions on how to pay.

There should be no issue leaving your car. I've done it for years before and after the hotel took over. They have have a security guard onsite patrolling the parking lot and hotel 24/7.






Convenient parking at P2738, 545 S. Main Street, Memphis, TN


Daily/Monthly parking at 545 S. Main Street, Memphis, TN. Reserve online or drive up, park and pay via mobile phone.




www.premiumparking.com


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## George Harris (Oct 5, 2022)

545 S. Main Street, is the address for Central Station. The entrance to the parking lot is about a block plus south of the station itself, off the west side of Main Street. Looked at the reference merkelmann06 gave. Parking is pricey. However not sure you could do much better and have your car still there when you got back. Have no idea of the cost of the hotel itself, but suspect it would not be cheap. If you park there, you could catch the trolley in main street and ride up to the stop at Beale Street. Ask the operator to be sure you get off at the right place. Walk down the hill toward the river, under the railroad overpass, cross Riverside drive and walk south until you get to the boat dock. 

I get downtown about once every 6 months. Last summer took my sister in law on the hour and half local cruise. Nice little boat ride down to pass under the bridges and then up to pass under the I-40 bridge. Nice little spiel about the river and such, but don't take the contents as gospel. Incidentally, the three parallel bridges are where they are because that is one of the very few places along the river where the channel won't move because it is in a curve into the bluff and the hard clay of the bluff does not erode easily. The three bridges are on 200 feet centers, with overlapping woven willow foundation mats put down at the pier locations for the start of the underwater excavation, (Wood that stays saturated will not rot due to lack of oxygen, so the original mats for the center bridge piers put down in 1888 was still there when the highway bridge was started in 1946.) The center bridge was the first bridge over the Lower River, opened in 1892. Called the Frisco Bridge. Currently BNSF, single track, but originally planked level with top of rails for passage of wagons between trains. The north bridge was opened in 1916, and was the second bridge to be constructed across the Lower River. It is two tracks and originally built with cantilevered roadways on each side. The north side roadway is open as a walking and bike path. Currently UP. Called the Harahan Bridge. As originally built has sufficient clearances for double stacks and three level autoracks. The overhead braces of the Frisco bridge were modified to also provide clearance for double stacks and three level autoracks. The southern bridge of the three is a four lane highway bridge, opened in 1949. Called the Memphis and Arkansas Bridge. Carries I-55 and all the US numbered highways that cross the river. All the spans on these three bridges are identical in length in order to minimize obstructions in the river channel. (In Memphis to say "The River" means only one thing, the Mississippi River.) The other bridge to the north, the I-40 bridge has a story of its own.


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## Jonathan (Oct 7, 2022)

Thanks for all the help. You guys rock!

I have decided to go elsewhere.


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