In 1870, the bridge was declared a post route, therefore stopping the occupation of steamboats and approval of railroads.

From 1859 to 1908, the mileage in operation increased from 28,789 to 229,230, prompting the Chicago and North Western Railway to replace the bridge with a new structure in 1900.

Through its purchase of Chicago and North Western Railway in 1995, Union Pacific Railroad is the current owner of the bridge.

The bridge was listed as “hazard to navigation” by United States Coast Guard in 1996 and by the Iowa Department of Transportation in 2009.

During December 2020, the Illinois Department of Resources gave notice that a new bridge was planned to begin construction in 2021 with demolition of the existing one to occur in 2025.

At the end of the swing span is a Warren-style truss configuration, and the tower portion of the bridge has a very narrow appearance.

[7] The Iowa Land Company was organized in 1855 with the announcement that a railroad crossing was to be attempted south of Lyons and Fulton.

However, the entire span was not yet complete, and railway cars had to be ferried across the main channel of the river between Little Rock Island and the Iowa shoreline.

[15] From the beginning of its construction, the Clinton Railroad Bridge was the subject of several lawsuits brought by river steamboat operators.

[16] The bridge was declared a post route, therefore stopping the occupation of steamboats and approval of railroads.

[22] During that year, the Coast Guard issued an order to "alter the bridge" to the Union Pacific and cited it as an "unreasonable obstruction to navigation".

[1] In a 2009 report, the Iowa Department of Transportation described the bridge as a "persistent hazard to navigation that causes a significant loss of America's economic competitiveness due to delays it creates".

[23] In 2013, Union Pacific planned to build a new $400 million span bridge to replace the current one.