Image 1 of 1: Following the Indian Removal Act of 1830, signed by President Andrew Jackson, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes across the Southeast were compelled at various times throughout the 1830s to give up their lands and move west to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. From 1836-38 the Cherokee people of northern Georgia were rounded up and forced to relocate north and then west along what would come to be called the Trail of Tears. There were several routes taken to Oklahoma, all of which passed through Tennessee. The only route that passed through Nashville was the Northern Route, where Cherokee people and their government escorts would have crossed the covered toll bridge built in 1823 that once stood were Victory Memorial Bridge now stands. It was the first bridge in Nashville and the stone abutments are still visible along the riverbanks. The bridge was too short for the new steamships of the era, so it was torn down in 1850 and replaced with the first Woodland Street Bridge.