The sidewalk features four shelters with cast-iron supports while the bridge deck has decorative iron railings and two stone pavilions.

The bridge structure was originally installed further to the north, carrying Broadway across the Harlem River Ship Canal.

[11] Burr was posthumously described as "one of the engineers who helped to raise the level of American building technology to the status of exact science".

[12] Burr also gave credit to Alfred Pancoast Boller, who was responsible for the bridge's aesthetics, and George W. Birdsall, chief engineer of the Department of Public Works.

[14] He had stated in 1877 that, by including ornamental detail in bridge designs, "the appearance of a roadway-bridge having sidewalks is very much enhanced, and at a very small cost.

"[15] Birdsall appears to have been given ex officio credit, by virtue of his position as Public Works chief engineer.

The two central sections comprised the swing span, which pivoted around a small masonry island in the middle of the canal.

On either side of the masonry island were navigable openings that measured 104 feet 1 inch (31.72 m) wide at mean high water.

[10][27] According to the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), which maintains the bridge, its total length is 1,566 feet (477 m), including its approach spans.

[13][27][31] At either end of the bridge's approach spans are concrete ramps with walls made of granite ashlar.

The overpass continues as Fordham Road, which intersects with the on- and off-ramps of Interstate 87 (I-87), the Major Deegan Expressway.

[32] On either bank of the river is an iron, copper, and stone shelter house with a red tile roof.

[27] There are drawbridge gates near these end piers, blocking off access to the swing span when it is open for maritime traffic.

The pergolas each consist of six cast-iron columns with elliptical wrought-iron arches, as well as hip roofs with copper shingles.

[38] A branch of the line was to cross the Harlem Ship Canal above Broadway,[39] which involved modifying or replacing the existing bridge.

[40] Ultimately, the IRT determined the existing structure could not support the elevated subway line,[23][41][42] choosing instead to build the double-decker Broadway Bridge.

[4][28] The need to replace the bridge was further emphasized when, in 1903, the New York State Legislature passed legislation allowing the realignment of the New York Central Railroad's Spuyten Duyvil Line (now the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line) along the Harlem River's eastern bank.

[43][44] The railroad wished to avoid a grade crossing with the Metropolitan Street Railway's streetcar tracks on the replacement Broadway Bridge.

[43] Ultimately, the city made an agreement with the three railroads to relocate the first span down the Harlem River, only ten years after it had been constructed.

[41][42][50] At 207th Street, the Foundation and Contracting Company started constructing the pier at the center of the river in November 1903,[38][44] completing it ten months later.

[60][64][65] The Union Railway Company planned to extend their Fordham Road streetcar line from the Bronx to Manhattan when the bridge was announced.

The work was supposed to be finished in 1995 but was delayed by two years because of a lack of coordination with other government agencies, which were renovating the University Heights station and the I-87 exit and entrance ramps.

[88] Architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler stated that the Macombs Dam and University Heights Bridges were "highly creditable works, in an artistic as well as in a scientific sense.