[4] It is notable for being the only swing bridge in the United Kingdom to carry an overhead electrified railway track (25 kV 50 Hz).

The line was resignalled in 2000, leading to the closure of a number of mechanical signal boxes with control moving to Trowse.

The bridge was fabricated and fully trial erected, including a slewing motion trial, inside the Butterley Engineering Company's workshops known as "The Bridge Yard" at Butterley Hill, Ripley in Derbyshire during 1986 and was delivered to site and installed during the winter months of November 1986 to January 1987.

The swing bridge section is approximately 26 metres (85 ft) long, with an off-centre slewing bearing and an underslung counterweight box.

It was necessary for the swing bridge to be balanced about the centre of slew to give equal loading of the 4 main lifting jacks and the span was accurately weighed by 4 x 100 long tons (100 t; 110 short tons) electronic load cells (certified to ±0.5%) February 1987, during the bridge's final installation and commissioning trials.