[2][3] Named for Joel Roberts Poinsett, it was built in 1820 as part of the Old Buncombe Road from Columbia, South Carolina, to Saluda Mountain.

[4][5] The stone bridge, which includes a 14-foot (4.3 m) Gothic arch and stretches 130 feet (40 m) over Little Gap Creek, may have been designed by Robert Mills, architect of the Washington Monument.

There is a nature trail a few hundred yards from the bridge.

[3][9] The bridge, about which ghost stories have been told for decades,[10] is located off U.S. Highway 25 north of Greenville, South Carolina.

[11] The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.