The bridge was designed by the colonial Public Works Department's John Turnbull Thomson and constructed by the P&W Maclellan, Glasgow Engineers at a cost of Straits $80,000.

Built and tested in Glasgow to withstand a load four times its own weight, it was shipped to Singapore in parts and reassembled in 1869 by convict labour before opening to traffic a year later.

A police notice, which is still preserved until today, was thus erected at both ends of the bridge restricting the passage of vehicles that weighed beyond 3 cwt (152 kilograms or 336 pounds), including cattle and horses.

It was subsequently upgraded to a national monument, planned in the early 2010s and announced in 2019 by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat.

The historical significance is the old police signboard and the physical bridge where Singaporeans had walked past through, even during Lee Kuan Yew's lying-in-state in March 2015.