[2] It connects Tahrir Square in Downtown Cairo on the east bank of the river, to the southern end of Gezira/Zamalek Island.

At the bridge's east and west approaches are four large bronze lion statues; they are late 19th-century works by Henri Alfred Jacquemart, French sculptor and animalier.

Qasr El Nil Street crosses over the Nile on the bridge, from the east bank area Tahrir Square—Liberation Square in downtown Cairo, past the huge Mogamma government building and the headquarters of the Arab League, then onto the Qasr El Nil Bridge over the river to Gezira Island.

There it meets Opera Square and the Cairo Opera House, with connections north to the Cairo Tower and the Zamalek district, and south across the island to the Tahrir Bridge across a smaller branch of the Nile to Tahrir Street in the Agouza district on the west bank.

[3] The foundation stone for the present Qasr El Nil Bridge was laid by King Fuad I on February 4, 1931.