[1] The bridge was built in 1878 by Andrew Handyside and Company, a Derby-based iron foundry firm, to the design of Richard Johnson, the Great Northern Railway's chief engineer for the route.

Most of the infrastructure was demolished, and the bridge and the nearby goods warehouse (built in the same year) are among the only traces of Friargate station.

Derby City Council attempted several restoration projects after taking ownership of the bridge, but none came to fruition.

[5][8] The bridge is the subject of the duo Flanagan and Allen's best known song Underneath the Arches, referring to the homeless men who slept there during the Great Depression.

[9] According to a television programme broadcast in 1957, Bud Flanagan said that he wrote the song in Derby in 1927, and first performed it a week later at the Pier Pavilion, Southport.