The bridge was preceded by the nearby "la Puente de Palo"[2][3][4] (lit.

the stick-bridge), a rudimentary wooden bridge that still existed by 1962[5] built by the Viceroy Marquis of Cañete to connect what was then the neighbourhood of San Lázaro with the city of Lima.

[6] The construction was carried out at the request of Conquistador Jerónimo de Aliaga [es], with the finished product being a narrow bridge, through which only one person could pass at a time.

During the opening ceremony, speeches were given by Héctor García Ribeyro, then mayor of Lima, and Manuel Prado Ugarteche, then president of Peru who was accompanied by First Lady Clorinda Málaga, with whom he travelled from one side to the other in his car once the ceremony had concluded.

[9] Also present in the ceremony were the Archbishop of Lima, Juan Landázuri Ricketts, and auxiliary bishop José Antonio Dammert Bellido.