As at 2009, Roads & Maritime Services estimated that Victoria Bridge carried an average daily traffic of 25,000 vehicles per day.

This arrangement meant that in times of flood, travellers were often delayed at Penrith for days or even weeks waiting to cross the river.

A small village developed near Emu Ford to cater to the people waiting to cross the river.

With the discovery of gold west of the Great Dividing Range the flow of people, produce and animals through Penrith and across the river increased dramatically.

Following the discovery of gold in the west of the Great Dividing Range demand for a permanent river crossing increased.

In 1850 the Government of New South Wales, reacting to lobbying by Penrith locals, passed an Act authorising the construction of a bridge at the western end of Jamison Road.

The first directors of the Penrith and Nepean Bridge Company were local entrepreneurs Robert Fitzgerald, James Thomas Ryan, Edwin Rouse, John Perry, Charles York, Henry Hall, Alexander Fraser.

In August 1857 a flood carried away the four centre spans, no doubt due to the poor security of the mid-stream timber piles which reportedly were frayed like mop heads where McBeth had attempted to drive them into rock.

The new bridge was of a different, stronger design than the first and construction was completed in good time with the toll rights for one year selling for £2,850.

[1] The loss of the punts coincided with a period in which the Great Western Railway was in the advanced planning stages, including plans for the construction of a bridge over the Nepean River to link Penrith with Bathurst in the west, as part of the Penrith to Weatherboard Line (later Wentworth Falls).

It was decided that the required bridge would carry both a railway line and a single lane of road over the river, as a temporary solution.

It utilised cutting edge of structural technology, using principles developed by Robert Stephenson in his design of the Britannia Bridge and the Conwy Railway Bridge in Wales, Thomas Telford and others who, by testing and theoretical work, developed techniques to prevent plate buckling by providing frequent vertical stiffeners, and sideways buckling of girders members by adding torsionally stiff boxes at the top and bottom.

It was provided with suspension towers in case the deck was insufficiently strong and stiff, but the cables were never installed.

Other small contracts for earthworks were also made bringing the total cost of the 1100 tonne iron bridge to approximately £110,000.

The Great Flood of 1867 damaged the western timber approaches and washed away a portion of the spans and river bank.

The main spans however withstood this first major test and the flood waters did not reach the underside of the deck.

Temporary repair work took about ten days to completed and as a result the bridge was opened to trains on 11 July 1867.

Following community advocacy,[11] in 2010, Roads & Maritime Services commenced a feasibility study into a shared pedestrian/cyclist pathway over the bridge.

There is a secondary, shorter, shallower, simply-supported girder, 41.1 metres (135 ft) long at the western (Emu Plains) end of the bridge.

All four iron girders have pairs of hollow boxes top and bottom separated by two web plates, an early version of box-girder construction.

[1] Architectural curved angle sections appear on the outer face of the girders of the main span.

[1] Victoria Bridge (Penrith) was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 27 May 2016 having satisfied the following criteria.

Victoria Bridge is of state significance for its historical role as a vital element in the development of key road and rail transport routes across NSW from the 1860s and 1870s.

Mr Whitton was an outstanding engineer of his time and was also responsible for overseeing construction of the bridge and the railway line between Penrith and Wentworth Falls.

[1] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

Whitton's design employed the latest in British Bridge technology, utilising the through girder form, reinforced with boxes at the top and bottom of the girders, and long continuous spans to achieve maximum waterway, a feature of major importance at this site.

[1] The quality and longevity of the bridge is evidence of Whitton's correct understanding of the power of the Nepean and his enormous commitment to build railways of a high standard, employing cutting edge British technology in a colony barely out of its infancy.

[1] The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

[1] The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

It also represents the importance of high quality bridge design in the opening up of Western NSW to the railway.