It is a multiple-span Pennsylvania truss bridge which completed a 196-mile (315 km) railroad line for the Copper River and Northwestern Railway, built by J. P. Morgan and the Guggenheim family to haul copper from the old mining town of Kennicott, now located within the Wrangell–St.

[4]: 175 Current access to the bridge is limited to jet boat travel up the Copper River or boat travel downriver from Chitina due to the erosion along the Copper River Highway,[5] and there is currently no access by road.

The cost of repairs has prevented necessary maintenance albeit Miles Glacier bridge remains an attraction for tourists.

The Copper River and Northwestern Railway and associated bridges were built between 1906 and 1911 by Michael James Heney.

[6][7] The bridge at Mile 49 needed to span 1,500 feet of the Copper River between two glaciers on either bank.

[4] Temporary repairs, consisting of a rudimentary system of cables, I-beams, and planks, kept the bridge passable after the 1964 earthquake.

The damaged icebreaker was moved downstream during a high water event in 2019, and offers no protection to the first pier.