It was built in combination with the original Central Station (German: Zentralbahnhof [tsɛnˈtʁaːlˌbaːnhoːf]) and a new ground-level railway track through the northern Old Town of the Cologne Innenstadt.

The Prussian authorities pressed for a bridge due to increasing road traffic between Cologne and the eastern river bank.

The city council filed a request with Frederick William IV of Prussia in 1847, who through the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Public Works appointed the Prussian chief civil engineer Karl Lentze to design the bridge.

It might, however, be mentioned that the Britannia Bridge successfully took increasingly heavy railway trains across the Menai Strait from its opening in 1850 until it was seriously damaged by fire in 1970.

The combination of a cage-like structure that could be closed on either side inspired the local nickname "mouse trap" (Kölsch: Muusfall, pronounced [ˈmus²fal]).

Only after construction work had begun were the designs altered to include dual railway tracks on the northern downstream side of the bridge.