On April 19, 1775, the first day of the American Revolutionary War, provincial minutemen and militia companies numbering approximately 400 engaged roughly 90 British Army troops at this location.

The battle was the first instance in which American forces advanced in formation on the British regulars, inflicted casualties, and routed their opponents.

The significance of the historic events at the North Bridge inspired Ralph Waldo Emerson to refer to the moment as the "shot heard round the world."

To facilitate travel from their farms to the town, north quarter land owners built a bridge over the Concord River at or near this location by the early 1650s.

[9] The provincials advanced in military order to take the bridge and moved on with the intention to stop the regulars from burning the town.

[12] This first instance of Americans fighting in military order and firing to deadly effect on British troops was a key turning point in the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

In 1788 these included Captain David Brown, Lieutenant Elisha Jones, and Colonel John Buttrick, all of whom had fought at the North Bridge in 1775.

In 1874, as plans developed for the celebration of the centennial of the battle, the Town of Concord appointed a committee to oversee the placement of a monument on the west side of the river where the first minutemen died in combat.

[15] The new structure would be open to foot traffic only and would serve as part of the larger memorial, providing access to the new statue and demonstrating to visitors what the area looked like on the first day of the Revolution.

Despite attempts to make the 1888 bridge stronger with large oak pilings and cross beams, it too was washed out by spring floods in 1909.

[18] This took place as the town was considering numerous landscape architectural plans to better preserve the monuments at the site and the surrounding grounds.

[19] Concord residents mounted protests, urging that the new commemorative bridge should be made of wood and not concrete.

The most prominent of these added features are the pile header beams which extend on either side of the bridge platform and the cross braces connected to them.

These provide strength but also allow flexibility during floods[21] The 1956 bridge used pressure treated wood but incorporated hand hewn timbers for an authentic appearance.

After further preservation studies, Minute Man National Historical Park embarked on an extensive restoration of the bridge in 2005.

The obelisk was designed by Solomon Willard and placed on the land donated by Ripley, near where the east abutment of the bridge had been.

The inscription on the monument reads, "HERE On the 19 of April, 1775, was made the first forcible resistance to British aggression / On the opposite Bank stood the American Militia / Here stood the Invading Army and on this spot the first of the Enemy fell in the War of that Revolution which gave Independence to these United States / In gratitude to GOD and In the love of Freedom this Monument was erected AD.

The first, and best known, of the four stanzas of this poem is: By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world.

[25] Daniel Chester French, then 21 years old, was engaged by the Monument Committee to sculpt a statue representing a minuteman.

On April 19, 1975, the 200th anniversary of the Concord Fight, President Gerald Ford gave a speech at the bridge and placed a wreath at the base of "The Minute Man" as part of the United States Bicentennial celebrations.

Two others died at the bridge and were buried adjacent to a stone wall forming the boundary of the Old Manse property.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, who resided at the Old Manse for a time, called these a "humbler...yet more interesting" token of the Concord Fight than the 1836 Battle Monument.

[25] In 1910 residents of Concord placed a more substantial granite marker inscribed with a stanza from James Russell Lowell's 1849 poem, "Lines, Suggested By the Graves of Two English Soldiers On Concord Battle-Ground:" They came three thousand miles and died To keep the past upon its throne: Unheard, beyond the ocean tide, Their English Mother made her moan.