The current bridge was constructed in 1954-6 by the Victorian Country Roads Board (CRB) using a design employing cast-in-place reinforced-concrete curved T girders and an integral flat slab deck.

[3] The early 1837 survey for the Melbourne township established a preferred route to the east of the Yarra River along Johnston Street, which was confirmed in La Trobe's 1841 plan of proposed roads to outlying districts.

The river could be forded nearby at Dight's Falls, but advocates for a bridge over the Yarra in 1855 debated over a preferred crossing at this site or near the end of Clarke Street or near the current Collins Footbridge.

This was one of the first local bridges to employ cylindrical iron columns, which were filled with concrete to provide slender piers to reduce any impediment floodwaters.

The Abbotsford end of the bridge was the terminus of the Collingwood cable tramway line, with a car shed located nearby.