The bridge was a key link in ancient trade routes from the Mediterranean Sea to Anatolia and Persia.

[1] Victor Langlois, who visited Adana in 1852–1853, attributes the current bridge to the Emperor Hadrian, who ruled from AD 117 to 138 and traveled through Anatolia between 120 and 135, commissioning buildings in many places.

Langlois reported that the bridge had borne an inscription with Hadrian's name until about twenty years before his visit.

[2] Some accounts trace the construction to a late 4th-century Roman architect named Auxentius, who also built a bridge in Rome in 384.

However, a full reading appears to link this inscription to an aqueduct feeding waterwheels and not to the construction of the bridge.

[3] The historian Procopius of Caesarea records in the Buildings of Justinian, written in about 557, that Justinian I, who ruled 527–565, ordered the rebuilding of the bridge: The portion of this masonry [of the piers] which chanced to be below the water and so was constantly battered by its powerful current had, in a space of time beyond reckoning, come to be mostly destroyed.

[1] Further restoration work was commissioned by Governor Osman Pasha during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, as recorded by an inscription at the Adana Archeological Museum (Inventory No.

[1]When cotton cultivation expanded following Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt's rule over Cilicia in the mid 19th-century, migrant workers would gather on Taşköprü for a weekly labor market during the spring months to be hired by overseers for casual labor in the region's fields.

[5] Although a variety of materials have been used throughout the many periods of construction and restoration, the bridge was generally built of tufa, marble and spolia.

[1] The Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi recorded a length of 550 feet (170 m) at the time of his visit.

[1] The bridge was shortened as portions of the approach at either end were buried during work to stabilize the river banks.

[1] The bridge's sculptural decoration includes a lion relief on the north side of the 11th arch, and various star-and-crescent artwork.

[1] A pavilion supported on four columns was built midway across the bridge by the Governor Mahmut Paşa but was later demolished.