One arched stone abutment on the Georgetown (north) end survives; it is overseen by the National Park Service as an historic site.

In 1830, merchants from Alexandria, Virginia, which was still part of the District of Columbia at the time, proposed linking their city to Georgetown to capitalize on the new Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

[9] Citizens in Virginia demanded that Congress pick up the cost, arguing this was an interstate bridge and therefore a national concern.

The Alexandria Canal Company sold the bridge's piers for $85,000 and its deck for $50,000, and the deed was conveyed to the federal government on August 15, 1884.

[11] Almost immediately, a dispute broke out among the canal company's shareholders as to the distribution of the funds, which suspended the transfer of deed.

[16] On October 20, 1886, the canal company shareholders finally decided how to divide up the proceeds from their sale of the bridge.

Although a new deed of transfer was prepared in mid-November 1886,[18] the Alexandria Canal Company sued the federal government within weeks, seeking to receive the full sale price all at once rather than in installments.

[21] Meanwhile, the Corps of Engineers reported in January 1887 that a new bridge could be constructed for $105,000 (the sum of money left over from the 1884 appropriation).

[27] Suit for the right-of-way was filed in December 1887, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal agreed to provide it (pending an appraisal) in January 1888.

[31] In 1889, the northern arch in the Washington abutment was enlarged so that the Georgetown Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad could pass underneath.

[36] Congress approved the construction of a wooden superstructure that extended outward from the upstream side of the bridge's deck to carry electric trolleys between Georgetown and Rosslyn in 1902.

[40] But the aging structure continued to suffer damage, and by September 1912 the bridge was leaning dangerously to the west.

[42] In March 1914, Representative Charles Creighton Carlin of Virginia sponsored legislation to replace Aqueduct Bridge with a new, $1 million structure.

[47] Rep. William C. Adamson, chairman of the House Committee on Public Works, challenged Swanson and declared that the new bridge should be placed where the old one was.

[49] Garrison tried to break the deadlock on January 9 by issuing a report that declared the existing bridge unsafe, and requesting that the new one be built in the same location.

[54] On February 3, 1916, vehicular traffic over Aqueduct Bridge was limited by the city to a single automobile at a time due to its dangerous nature.

[61] When repairs on Aqueduct Bridge were made in October 1916 to prepare the structure for winter, the Corps discovered even more deterioration than before.

[62] In January 1917, the Corps of Engineers found that inflation in the price of construction materials made it necessary to ask for $300,000 more in funding from Congress.

[64] But citizen pressure and the danger of collapse due to ice flows in the spring[65] convinced Congress to pay the money.

[67] The first coffer dam for construction of the piers was sunk in May 1918,[68] and, in July 1921, the Aqueduct Bridge was ordered to be closed.

[70] Although Georgetown citizens pressed to keep the Aqueduct Bridge open for recreation,[71] demolition began in December 1933.

By mid-century, the piers had come to be viewed by recreational boaters (particularly rowers from nearby Georgetown University) as an obstacle to enjoyment of the river and a navigational hazard.

[74] The southern arch of the Washington abutment shelters rowing shells belonging to members of the Potomac Boat Club.

[74] After the B&O's Georgetown Branch was abandoned in 1985, Water Street NW was extended west through the passageway to the Washington Canoe Club.

Conceptual images show that a pole supporting the gondola's cables would rise from the bridge's remaining pier.