The bridge is located along Campsite Road (County Route 30) in an area with the public campground, one of the oldest in the Catskill Park, on both sides of the river.

It goes almost due east–west across a south-flowing stretch of the Beaver Kill's generally east-southeast flow at this point, nearly 1,800 feet (550 m) above sea level.

On the east a ten-foot (3 m) approach ramp supported by a steel I-beam[4] leads up slightly to the portal past a rustic wooden fence along either side of the road that becomes timber guide rails.

A tannery was established near the bridge site in 1832, processing the bark of the abundant Eastern Hemlock trees in the region into tannin for the leather industry.

[5] The bridge has long been attributed locally to John Davidson, a Scottish immigrant whose father had settled the family in Downsville to the north to raise sheep.

After his marriage, Davidson moved to Shin Creek (today Lew Beach) where he farmed, logged and owned a sawmill while raising a family of 14.

Its distinctive feature is the diagonals connected to the lower chord by pins, which eliminated the need for vertical members on longer bridges.

[3] A major deviation from Town's design are the additional diagonals at the ends, which distribute the load over a smaller area and eliminates the need for long abutment seats of bolster beams.

After the 1880s, the combination of depleted hemlock stands and a synthetic process for making tannin led to the demise of that industry along the upper Beaverkill.

It was replaced by seasonal visitors who came to appreciate the scenic beauty of the area, now with some landholdings part of the state's recently created Forest Preserve and thus kept "forever wild", and its recreational offerings, particularly dry-fly fishing for trout in the upper Beaver Kill.

While the hamlet of Beaverkill had dwindled to almost a ghost town, it was the site of a trout pool popular with anglers,[6] and thus the area on both sides of the bridge was turned into the second public campground in the Catskill Park after North-South Lake.

Over the next several decades, it made repairs and replacements as needed, including facing the abutments in concrete, the only significant change in the bridge's appearance since its construction.

At that time, the county opposed listing it on the National Register since its Department of Public Works felt that could hamper their efforts to assure its safety.

Both are regarded as structurally deficient for modern needs[2] and have reduced load limits that may preclude their use by heavier service and emergency vehicles.