The prefabrication and prestressing of the cables decreased the number of field adjustments required, saving considerable time, effort, and money.

These innovations, invented and pioneered by Steinman, were a significant step forward for builders of suspension bridges.

The Waldo–Hancock was also the first bridge to make use of the Vierendeel truss in its two towers, giving it an effect that Steinman called "artistic, emphasizing horizontal and vertical lines."

It cost far less than had been appropriated by the State Highway Commission, which enabled the construction of a second bridge between Verona Island and Bucksport.

Original tolls ranged from 10¢ for "one or two horse vehicle including driver" to 50¢ for "auto truck or tractor over 26,000 pounds".

As the bridge approached its seventieth anniversary with the end of the century, a series of routine safety inspections made by the Maine Department of Transportation revealed that over those seven decades the structure's two main suspension cables and the many vertical bridge deck stringers had become seriously corroded, thereby deteriorating their ability to support the deck, roadway and the traffic that crossed it.

The rehabilitation used a single wire thickness (2-inch-diameter (5.1 cm) galvanized helical 91-wire strands) to facilitate fabricating and installing the cables more quickly.

Crews installed continuous runs of strands on new saddles bolted and welded on new base plates atop cable bents and the main towers.

The Maine Department of Transportation announced on February 14, 2012, that the bridge would be demolished starting that summer and be completed by the fall.

[10] Demolition was delayed until 2012, beginning with the November 20 removal of the bridge's flag poles, and was completed in June 2013.