The Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society estimated that it was built sometime around 1365 to 1368, as it appears in the will of Thomas del Bothe, a yeoman from Barton who bequeathed it £30.

[4][5] A narrow stone bridge with three gothic arches,[6] it housed a chapel built by del Bothe on the middle pier.

[1][7] The bridge was the site of a notable incident during the English Civil War, when Royalist Salford used it to mount a short-lived siege of Parliamentarian Manchester.

[8] The 16th-century antiquary John Leland called the old bridge "the best of III arches", and referred to del Bothe's building as "a praty litle chapel".

[7] Bradshaw's Manchester Journal describes its construction as narrow, steeply-sloped and rudimentary, quoting an excerpt from the 27 March 1839 edition of the Manchester Guardian: On removing the key-stones of the arch on the Salford side, the whole of the masonry from the keystone to the centre pier fell over at once into the river, precipitating three or four of the workmen into the water; but fortunately none of them received any more serious injury than a considerable fright and a thorough ducking.

Inclement weather caused several construction delays,[nb 2] but the final stone was laid almost a year later on 23 March 1839, by Sir Humphrey de Trafford, 2nd Baronet.

[10] The event drew large crowds, who watched as a procession of soldiers twice crossed the bridge, accompanied by regimental bands playing "God Save the Queen".

[6] Queen Victoria crossed the bridge, which was partially covered by a temporary triumphal arch, on her visit to Manchester in October 1851.

[11] The Manchester Guardian declared the new bridge "an ornament to the towns which it unites", and a "highly creditable public work to the parties to whom the management of its erection has been entrusted, and to the present advanced state of pontal architecture.