Built in 1931, the bridge carries Fifth Street across Shoal Creek to link central Austin with neighborhoods that were then the city's western suburbs.

It is one of only a handful of curved cantilever girder bridges in Texas, built as part of the city's 1928 master plan for urban development and beautification.

In 1887 the city built the West Sixth Street Bridge to carry automobile and streetcar traffic between downtown and the growing western suburbs,[2] but population growth soon led to heavy congestion at this crossing.

[2] The city undertook renovations in 2008 to repair cracked and broken portions of the concrete and reinforce the deck, but the bridge retains its original design and appearance.

On December 3, 2019, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its significance as an excellent example of an unusual bridge type and a manifestation of early-twentieth-century urban planning in Texas's growing capital city.