In the 1930s, the insufficiency of the ancient Milvian Bridge as an exit from Rome along the route of the Cassia and Flaminia consular roads, together with the need to provide a scenographic entrance to the capital for the traffic coming from North, led to the planning of a series of interventions: a variant upstream of the present Via Cassia Vecchia (to be connected to a variant of Via Flaminia Vecchia) and the construction of a new bridge, which should have been called "October XXVIII" in memory of the date of the march on Rome.

In the early 1960s the bridge was closed to motor vehicles due to a structural problem on the fifth pylon, which caused a subsidence of the roadway; the restoration works were entrusted to the engineers Arrigo Carè and Giorgio Giannelli, while a Bailey bridge was set up just upstream to absorb the traffic.

The bridge was reopened in 1964, when, however, the construction of the Grande Raccordo Anulare and the Fiumicino Airport had substantially reduced its function as the main entrance to Rome.

Cylindrical stones and stems, bearing eagles and street lamps, rise on the two large sidewalks, raised by scenic stairways.

Its profile recalls that of the neighbor Milvian Bridge, with enormously emphasized proportions, thus obtaining a monumental and imposing structure.