After the hospital's closure, in 1983,[4] the bridge provided access to other city facilities on the island, including a homeless shelter, programs for patients with substance abuse problems, and a fire station.

A Fields Corner–Long Island bus service over the bridge was operated by the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway until 1972, then by the MBTA until 1976.

[5][6] In October 2014, all access to Long Island was cut off for the indefinite future since the then Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, took the warning of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation about the condition of the Long Island Bridge being unsafe.

[7][8] In January 2015, demolition of the bridge began with the central span section being removed and ferried away in February.

[11] In July 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the Quincy Conservation Commission, which had rejected Boston's plans for the new bridge, did not have jurisdiction to overrule the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection approval of the plan.