Purchased from the British government at the end of the Crimean War,[1] this bridge had a 210 feet (64 m) span with side trusses being solid riveted iron 10 feet (3.0 m) high, designed to prevent Russian snipers from killing British troops.

[2] The current bridge was designed by Harold Desbrowe Annear and opened in 1923, having three reinforced concrete arches supported by piled foundations.

This method of construction reduced the clearance available to traffic on the road underneath, and in the 1990s in conjunction with the CityLink project the arch elements of this span were removed, and replaced by new elements 0.6 metres (2 ft 0 in) higher at the crown and 1.2 metres (3 ft 11 in) higher at either end.

[3] Specialised monitoring was required during the process to manage the changing loads on the elements of the bridge.

In January 2007 rehabilitation work was carried out by VicRoads, including waterproofing the concrete deck, replacing the tram tracks, and general resurfacing.