It was built to facilitate crossing the Ergene for troops during river floods, and to replace a wooden bridge; previous structures had rapidly deteriorated or had been destroyed.

The bridge was closed to traffic in September 2021 for another restoration project after cracks had started to appear in the stones a few years earlier.

The swampy nature of the area meant it unsuitable for settlement until the Ottoman period; the earliest settlers lived in the surrounding hilly regions.

[1] Occasional floods at Ergene made the crossings of Ottoman military expeditions into Rumelia difficult.

Sultan Murad II ordered a new stone bridge to be made long and strong so that it was still crossable during high tides.

[3] Additionally, the stone bridge provided a safe crossing of the marshy location on the Gallipoli–Edirne route.

[4] The land where Uzunköprü Bridge was to be built had first to be cleared up from spinose structures and other vegetation,[5] which had provided cover for thieves and thugs.

[4] Ottoman scholars differ about the year construction of the bridge began—according to Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, it was started in 1426/7, but Karaçelebizade Abdülaziz Efendi [tr][a] wrote that construction on the bridge was begun in 1427/8 by the sultan's head architect Muslihiddin and craftsman Mehmed, and that it was completed in 1443/4.

[5] The village, of Yaylar arose at the western end, while the town of Uzunköprü (lit. transl.

[6] The magnificent opening ceremony for the bridge was attended by the sultan, who was returning to Istanbul after his victory at the Battle of Varna.

[11] In 1908, the municipality removed stone blocks from the bridge to make drinking fountains inside the town.

[15] In 2015, the bridge was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Tentative List in the Cultural category.

[23] The Ottoman explorer Evliya Çelebi visited the town of Uzunköprü in 1658, and described the bridge as being 2000 "stretched steps" long.

[25] In 2018, the bridge was found to be 1,306.2 metres (4,285 ft) long, when its length was measured for the Guinness Book of World Records.