The bridge has a six-span hog-back configuration and is supported upon five cast iron cylindrical piers; the deck is intentionally skewed across the river to avoid sharp curves that would necessitate reducing the speed of passing trains.

On 4 October 1982, it was permanently taken out of service, with its traffic being redirected across former freight-only lines to the King Edward VII Bridge and through Dunston, allegedly as a cost-saving measure.

While unused for its original purpose for decades, the Scotswood Railway Bridge has remained in situ, carrying utilities across the river to the present day.

[1] The first Scotswood Railway Bridge, which was designed by the civil engineer John Blackmore and was composed primarily of timber, was completed in 1839 and opened to traffic that same year.

It was set at an angle to the river, thus avoiding any sharp curves for railway traffic to traverse, thus enabling trains to approach the bridge at considerable speeds.