The bridge is part of the Avenue, which connects the main buildings of Trinity College with the Trinity College Fellows' Garden, across Queen's Road.

[2] The triple-arch road bridge was built of Portland and Ketton stone in 1764-5 to the designs of James Essex.

The old bridge itself replaced an earlier one, destroyed by the Parliamentarian forces in the English Civil War.

[1] The cost for the bridge's construction was defrayed from a bequest from Dr. Francis Hooper (1694-1763), a Senior Fellow at Trinity College.

Consequently, the bridge bears the triple-turreted coat of arms of the Hooper family, as well as that of Trinity College.