Located near the ancient city of Limyra, it is the largest civil engineering structure of antiquity in the region, spanning the Alakır Çayı river over a length of 360 m (1,181.1 ft) on 26 segmental arches.

These arches, with a span-to-rise ratio of 5.3:1, give the bridge an unusually flat profile, and were unsurpassed as an architectural achievement until the late Middle Ages.

Despite its unique features, the bridge remains relatively unknown, and only in the 1970s did researchers from the Istanbul branch of the German Archaeological Institute carry out field examinations on the site.

[1] In 1882, an Austrian expedition, including Otto Benndorf, interpreted the structure as part of an ancient road that connected Limyra with the city of Attaleia (modern Antalya) to the east.

[1] The first, and as of 2008[update] only scientific examination of the bridge was undertaken by the German archaeologists Wolfgang W. Wurster and Joachim Ganzert in two successive days in September 1973, and completed through further visits in subsequent years.

[1] Their findings were published in 1978 in the Archäologischer Anzeiger journal of the German Archaeological Institute, with the express intent of bringing the imperiled state of the hitherto almost intact bridge into the spotlight:[2] Recently, citrus fruit plantations were created in this fertile bottomland; greenhouses for early vegetables are now being built east of the bridge.

[1] The local topography is dominated by the foothills of the Toçak Dağı mountains, which blend here with the alluvial bottomlands of the Bay of Finike.

[9] At the time of Wurster's and Ganzert's visit to the site, the entire bridge was buried by river sediments up to the springing line of the vaults.

The double-layer technique facilitated a more effective use of the falsework, since they could be removed and used elsewhere as soon as the lower course was finished: The construction of the two layers of the double brick-arches in two separate phases had two advantages.

[7] The two repaired arches 27a and 27b are differentiated from the earlier work through the use of smaller unworked stones and the incorporation of irregularly placed brick tiles.

[18] The interior of the superstructure consists of a combination of unworked masonry blocks and large river boulders, bound with lime mortar.

[7] The exact chronological placement of the Limyra bridge is difficult due to its unique place within Roman engineering tradition and the lack of comparable structures.

[17] Wurster and Ganzert used following characteristics as a starting point:[19] In contrast to these, most Roman stone bridges were faced with ashlar and rested on voussoir arches,[20] a method which is dominant in other vaulted structures in Lycia too.

[21] Compared to the massive and tall semicircular-arched bridges that are typical of Roman architecture, the Limyra bridge, with its flat segmented arches, offers a markedly lower and more elongated appearance,[22] so that Wurster and Ganzert offer a "provisional" late dating, approximately during the reign of emperor Justinian I in the 6th century, during which the use of mixed brick and stone is attested in other structures of the region.

[23] On the other hand, this mixed technique is already present in the 3rd-century AD aqueduct of Aspendos, and the Romans certainly knew how to build segmented-arched bridges, as attested by surviving examples, three of which are listed by Wurster and Ganzert themselves.

[25] The case for an earlier construction date has been strengthened in recent years with the discovery of further seven Roman segmented arch bridges.