Its construction, begun in 1904, was carried out by the K. Rudzki i S-ka company and supervised by engineers Mieczysław Marszewski and Wacław Paszkowski.

After Poland regained independence in 1918, the bridge was renamed after Prince Józef Poniatowski and acquired a new nickname — "Poniatoszczak" — which it retains to this day.

The first post-war plans by the new (communist) Polish government provided for the construction of a wooden temporary structure on the surviving pillars, but hasty work caused the bridge to collapse.

However, by now the reopened bridge had lost much of its pre-war splendor, as limited funds meant no resources to restore the various decorative neo-Polish renaissance features, such as the hand-made balustrades or stone benches.

Tadeusz Chyliński of the Institute of Aviation, stain gauge measurements of stresses in the bridge spans were carried out during test loading.