Its most well-known section runs from the Talmadge Memorial Bridge, then below City Hall and Yamacraw Bluff, to its eastern terminus.

Today, East River Street consists largely of restaurants, cafés and craft shops, and is one of the city's major tourist attractions.

Its half-mile-long pedestrian promenade, the John P. Rousakis Riverfront Plaza, is named for Savannah's longest-serving mayor (1970–1992).

The City of Savannah purchased the River Street Branch line right-of-way from Norfolk Southern in 2004[7] for approximately $600,000.

Large tankers and container ships proceeding to and returning from the Port of Savannah west of the city sometimes pass within yards of the promenade.

What had been the most tight-knit block of River Street, it subsequently lay empty for all of the 1970s, eventually filled by the John P. Rousakis Riverfront Plaza and the Hyatt Regency.