It allowed two lanes of traffic to cross the Swan River, alongside pedestrians on an adjacent footbridge.

Beeloo territory included the Martagarup[c] flats, immediately south-west of the bridge site, one of their fishing grounds.

Henty's land was south of the river, and changed hands multiple times in a short timespan – Henty preferred the north side of the river, and so sold his block to Philip Dod, who disliked the marsh-like quality of the land, and traded it to John Wall Hardey, founder of the Wesley Church in Perth.

Hardey expanded his land, which he named Grove Farm, by buying neighbouring riverside lots.

[1]: 5 Hardey was influential in the development of the Belmont area, as he took on the roles of Justice of the Peace, magistrate and member of the Legislative Council.

[2] The first formal request to the Perth Road Board for a vehicular crossing between Bayswater and Belmont was made in 1904, but it was declined due to insufficient trade potential.

The Belmont and Bayswater Road Boards[e] requested the state government construct a bridge, as new industries were developing in the districts.

Following a public meeting in 1924, residents of Bayswater and Belmont made a direct appeal to the premier, asserting that a new bridge would reduce traffic over The Causeway, and save the cost of replacing the structure, said to be £200,000.

[2] Three potential sites were considered:[1]: 7  The Town Planning Commission advocated for a bridge to the east of Ascot Racecourse, connecting to Slade Street north of the river.

Fill material came from levelling Ascot Racecourse, which had contained a World War I era mound in its centre.

Sustenance labourers worked on the construction project,[1]: 7–8  which required homes and businesses to be demolished or repositioned.

Her husband, William Traylen, named various roads in Bayswater after family members when he subdivided his land, c. 1890.

Buses became the main form of transportation across the river to Ascot Racecourse,[1]: 9  but by that time Garratt Road Bridge was already congested due to increasing traffic.

[1]: 10–11  By 2007 the one-way pair was removed, traffic was diverted wholly to the now dual carriageway Grandstand Road, and Resolution Drive was reverted to a residential street.

From the 1970s, Main Roads applied newly developed maintenance procedures that vastly extended the bridges' lifespans.

Such methods included "concrete decks; concrete pile and abutment overlays; removal of decayed timber and replacement with structural epoxy filler; sealing endgrain decking and tops of wingwall piles; diffusible fungicides; clearance of undergrowth to decrease surrounding humidity; skilled inspections, and treatment of metal components".

Karri used for half-caps was particularly prone to termite attack; while the outside had been treated with sodium fluoride and arsenic trioxide, the inside was susceptible to being hollowed out, and was the cause of a partial collapse of the upstream bridge in 1987.

[11][12] The City of Bayswater included Garratt Road Bridge on its Municipal Heritage Inventory on 24 February 1998, and it received classification from the National Trust on 14 April 1998.