The bridge links the Rose Quarter and Lloyd District in the east to Old Town Chinatown neighborhood in the west.

The bridge was designed by the engineering firm of Waddell & Harrington,[3] which was based in Kansas City, Missouri, but also had an office in Portland.

[4]: 31 [9] (Many years later, in 1986, electric transit vehicles returned to the bridge in the form of MAX Light Rail and later the Portland Vintage Trolley.

[10] In 1950, the Steel Bridge and its newly reconstructed approaches became part of a new U.S. 99W highway[4]: 37  connecting Harbor Drive and Interstate Avenue.

In the mid-1980s, the bridge underwent a $10 million renovation, including construction of the MAX light rail line of TriMet.

[13] Completion and testing of the light-rail tracks and overhead wires across the bridge took place during the next three months and the light rail line opened for service on September 5, 1986.

[4]: 37–39  The renovation also saw the crossing gates blocking the roadway and sidewalks during raising of the upper-deck lift replaced and automated.

[4]: 21 A single-lane viaduct that connected the bridge's east approach to another viaduct (still in existence) that takes traffic from southbound Interstate 5 to Interstate 84 was closed in 1988 and was demolished in 1989, as part of roadway changes intended to improve traffic flow around the Oregon Convention Center.

The bridge is owned by Union Pacific with the upper deck leased to Oregon Department of Transportation, and subleased to TriMet, while the City of Portland is responsible for the approaches.

The Oregonian called it the "hardest-working" bridge on the Willamette River: "Cars, trucks, freight trains, buses, Amtrak, MAX, pedestrians, bicycles — you carry it all.