By the time the line was finished, there were public calls from inside and outside the company for Helm to resign, mostly because of his support for a proposed Memphis branch of the railroad. To complete the branch, the Louisville and Nashville would have to complete a line from Bowling Green to Guthrie, Kentucky. There it would join a line owned by the Memphis and Ohio Railroad that began across the state line at Clarksville, Tennessee and extended to Memphis. Supporters believed the branch would economically help both Louisville and Memphis and would lessen their dependence on trade along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Opponents argued that the project was simply a ploy to whip up new support for the struggling railroad. Helm endorsed the Memphis branch in his annual report in 1857.