In 1871, the Grand Duchy of Baden, which was located on the right (eastern) bank of the Rhine, and the Kingdom of Bavaria, which governed the Palatinate on the left (western) bank, agreed to build a railway line from Bruchsal to Germersheim, including a bridge over the Rhine.

After lengthy discussions in 1874, it was decided to build the Rhine crossing north of the Germersheim fortress.

Since Deutsche Bundesbahn did not consider the Rhine Bridge necessary for operational reasons, it was not rebuilt immediately after the Second World War.

A three-span, pillar-free steel truss bridge with a through beam in the longitudinal direction was built by a joint venture of MAN Werk Gustavsburg and the Aug. Klönne company.

With the lessening of military tensions the strategic interest in the bridge declined after 1989 and the southern track was closed in 1994. it was electrified together with the Graben-Neudorf–Germersheim section of the Bruhrain Railway as part of the extension of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn at the end of 2011.