Due to its history, the bridge is said to have very important place and role in Belgrade's skyline and memory and is considered by many citizens as one of the city symbols.

However, starting in 2016 and 2017, the city administration decided to demolish it and build the new bridge instead to be more "modern" because of the nearby Belgrade Waterfront project.

This met with fierce public and experts opposition, with city changing the future of the bridge several times (expansion, upgrade, demolition, relocation on various locations) before claiming that citizens voted online to relocate it on dry land in the Ušće Park, as an "attraction".

A citizens association called "Imamo plan" with the support of the Savski Venac municipality is collected signatures for the initiative of naming the bridge after Miladin Zarić, the brave teacher who saved it.

[5] The steel, half-parabolic, supporting construction was placed on temporary wooden sheet piles and the bridge was completely finished in six months.

Miladin Zarić, a teacher who lived near the bridge, watched for several days where Germans placed the explosives.

On 20 October, as the Red Army approached, he went to the bridge and decided to risk his life and save the only connection between Central Serbia and Syrmia.

He then took bloody bayonet which was next to the dead German soldier nearby and repeatedly hit the fuse until he cut the wire.

In a bit over one hour they fired some 350 105 mm (4.1 in) shells, but only three actually hit the bridge, not causing any major damage.

After opting against the construction of metro, despite developing the project for over a decade, in 1984 the tramway tracks were laid over the bridge and the concrete panel was replaced with the steel one.

[1][2][10] In March 2016, mayor of Belgrade Siniša Mali announced the massive reconstruction of the bridge, slated to begin in the late 2017.

In the next 15 months, both Mali and the city architect, Milutin Folić, explained that the project was to include the widening of the bridge with one extra car lane in each direction and separate tram tracks.

[5][12] Engineer Ljuba Kostić, who constructed several bridges, including the Pavlovića Ćuprija on the Drina, criticized the project.

[5][12] In another confusing statement by the city architect Folić, he said that the bridge will not be removed, that it will remain at the same place, but it will get a new shape, repeating what he was saying previous year and a half.

[15] In her essay, Aleksandra Pavićević from the Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts called the planned demolition "autodestructive" and "deranged, dissipating idea".

Based on what some of the city officials said, Bakić concludes they don't want to have clinking, noisy trams passing next to their luxurious pet project, Belgrade Waterfront.

Aleksandar Milenković, member of the Academy of Architecture of Serbia, opposed the motion, expressing fear of "synchronous ad hoc decisions of the administration", and that seemingly benign idea is actually a strategically disastrous enterprise concerning the protected wildlife on the island.

[19] As the contract for the conceptual design was signed only in February 2018 and the deadline is set in 10 months, the construction was pushed to the second half of 2019, despite the continuing criticism of the entire idea of demolishing and relocating the old bridge.

[26] In March 2019, city urbanist Marko Stojčić said that the bridge will be placed as an extension of the Omladinskih Brigada Street, in the New Belgrade's Block 70-A, and that it will connect it with Ada Ciganlija.

[29] In July 2019, however, Stojčić said that the citizens will again vote for the new location, as the city administration finally admitted the original concerns that the relocation will be complicated and pricey.

[4][35][36][37][38][39] In December 2019 city announced that, with 3,454 votes (or 0.2% of total Belgrade population) against 2,836, the more expensive idea of relocation on dry land was chosen.

However, this project includes demolition of the Savamala section at the tunnel's entry point, and relocation of, by the mid-2022 still unknown, number of residents.

Construction works were awarded to the Power China International Group Limited, without any transparent or legally mandatory procedure.

[54] Opposition in city parliament asked the BNP Paribas to stop crediting the bridge's demolition.

Vitaly Stadnikov headed the team which envisioned the bridge as an integral part of the Staro Sajmište memorial complex.

[58] In August 2023, President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić said the "place for the bridge has been already found", connecting Zemun and the Great War Island, and that he will "nominate" the idea to citizens.

In May 2021, his daughter Milica Hakman donated the painting to the City Assembly of Belgrade to be exhibited in Stari dvor.

[61] The events of 1944 were dramatized in the TV series Povratak otpisanih, part of the extremely popular Otpisani franchise on underground guerrilla fighters in Belgrade.