[1] The cost of the bridge was £6,000, with government grants available for the project and the shortfall covered by a mixture of local subscription and loans from Edinburgh's banks, which were to be paid back by the tolling system.

There was controversy when the project's resident engineer, Robert Reid of Haddington,[2] used some of the funds to build accommodation for himself, but the trustees were assuaged when Smeaton argued that the house would actually help support the bridge.

[3] The bridge underwent subsequent work, including the 1784 construction of a downstream weir as an anti-erosion measure, concrete reinforcement of the foundations in 1922, alterations in 1928, and major work in 1960–1961 to strengthen the bridge and widen the road.

"[1] The Coldstream Bridge '(that part in Scotland) over the Tweed' (Scottish Borders) was Category A listed in 1971, being described in the Historic Scotland listing as "A very fine example of an 18th century bridge design by pre-eminent civil engineer John Smeaton, his first example of a bridge executed in fine dressed sandstone with classical detailing and forming a prominent structure in the landscape of the border between Scotland and England.

A weir named the Cauld immediately downstream of the bridge has protected it from erosion since 1785.