The Museum of Richmond has an engraving by John Barnard, architect of the design for the first Kew Bridge, dedicated to George, Prince of Wales and his mother Augusta and dated 1759.

The bridge was inaugurated on 1 June 1759 by the Prince of Wales driving over it with his mother and a number of other royals, and was opened to the public three days later.

The exhibition included a copy of a J. M. W. Turner sketch of the second bridge from Brentford Ait c. 1805/6 with barges on the left.

By the 1890s it was clear that the second bridge could not really cope with the weight of traffic and in any case the approach was too narrow and steep on the Brentford side.

c. clv) paved the way and the third bridge was commissioned jointly by the Middlesex and Surrey county councils at a cost of £250,000 (equivalent to £35.2 million in 2023[4]).

A special temporary balcony, projecting from this, was installed so that the crowds on the banks and on the water could see the royal visitors.

The king laid the last coping stone with a silver trowel and declared the bridge open.

He and the queen were given a number of gifts including bouquets, a bound history of the bridge and various other commemorative items including a silver-mounted prehistoric flint axe found during construction work, another axe with part of its haft remaining and a fine silver spirit level made in the shape of the bridge itself.

During the silent era of film, a Kew Bridge Studios operated along part of the northern approach.

[11] Hounslow Local Studies Library has Kew Bridge by James Isaiah Lewis, painted in about 1900.

[12] KING EDWARD VII BRIDGE THIS BRIDGE WAS BUILT AT THE JOINT COST OF THE COUNTIES OF MIDDLESEX AND SURREY IT WAS OPENED BY HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY KING EDWARD VII ACCOMPANIED BY QUEEN ALEXANDRA ON THE 20TH MAY 1903 Domine salvum fac regem nostrum Edvardum51°29′13″N 0°17′15″W / 51.48694°N 0.28750°W / 51.48694; -0.28750