Litigation in the United States Supreme Court concerning its obstruction of the new high steamboat smokestacks eventually cleared the way for other bridges, especially needed by expanding railroads.

Because this bridge was designed during the horse-and-buggy era, 2-ton weight limits and vehicle separation requirements applied in later years until it was closed to automobile traffic in September 2019.

Goods and produce could thus ship fairly cheaply and quickly down the Ohio River and reach the ocean port of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Both road and navigation improvements helped bring manufactured goods and people to Kentucky, western Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, etc., and as well as allowed produce and natural resources to reach eastern, southern and even international markets.

However, President Andrew Jackson had a much stingier view of internal improvements than Senator Clay, preferring to leave their construction to private or individual state interests, if at all.

Meanwhile, ferrying the U.S. mail, as well as passengers and goods across the Ohio river at Wheeling to connect the two sections of the National Road proved cumbersome and expensive.

Maintaining the (initially free) National Road also cost money, especially after floods in 1832 left debris, as well as destroyed shore facilities.

In 1835 Congress (dominated by Jacksonian Democrats) gave existing sections to the adjoining states, in order to pass on those maintenance costs.

Nonetheless, navigation on the Ohio River between Wheeling and Pittsburgh remained hazardous at certain times of year (because of ice and debris in winter and spring floods, as well as summer low water).

However, Virginia's legislature was dominated by plantation owners (from the coastal east and southern areas) who already had access to cheap river transport for many months every year.

However, Wheeling had become Virginia's second largest city by 1840, and its interests also lobbied to become a B&O terminus, linking the railroad to cheap river transportation.

In 1836, Federal engineers proposed a suspension bridge with a removable section to enable steamboat smokestacks to clear, but Congress tabled it.

As traffic on the National Road also languished, Virginia's congressmen finally abandoned their efforts to win federal funding for the Wheeling bridge in early 1847.

Charles Ellet and John A. Roebling were invited to submit designs and estimates for a bridge over the east channel of the river to Wheeling Island.

Ellet received the contract award in 1847 with a bid of $120,000 (Roebling's for a shorter double-span bridge was $130,000), and construction began the same year.

Pennsylvania's attorneys argued that the new bridge was a nuisance that obstructed the Ohio River (although anchored on one bank 100 feet (30 m) above the ground).

The Pittsburgh and Cincinnati steamboat line operated new vessels with very high smokestacks which would be damaged by collisions with the bridge, and stopping in Wheeling to transship passengers and freight would be expensive for the company.

The Wheeling Bridge Company, represented by Charles W. Russell and U.S. Attorney general Reverdy Johnson (supposedly in a private capacity, but who had denied Pennsylvania's request for his federal office's assistance)[16] argued the bridge helped the U.S. mails (delayed during icy as well as high and low water periods) and also connected military posts.

Other attorneys and engineers (including Ellett) approached the U.S. Congress and Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Virginia state legislatures.

[18] Walworth received considerable scientific and commercial evidence, including a report from U.S. Army engineer William Jarvis McAlpine.

However, after reviewing both parties' exceptions, receiving another report from McAlpine and hearing more argument on February 23 and 24, the U.S. Supreme Court[21] also refused to order the bridge removed, but instead amended the new required height to 111 feet (34 m).

[10] On May 17, 1854, a strong windstorm destroyed the deck of the bridge through torsional movement and vertical undulations that rose almost as high as the towers.

A truss pivot drawbridge across the Mississippi River between Davenport, Iowa and Rock Island, Illinois was completed in 1856, over the opposition of steamboat and other interests in St. Louis.

Still, Confederate raids often targeted the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, because of its strategic importance to Union forces, and many smaller Virginia bridges were blown up and rebuilt.

Loyal to the Union, Ellet and his son volunteered their services to the U.S. Navy, which used their engineering expertise in designing ironclad vessels, especially rams.

Colonel Ellet, who reported directly to Secretary of War Stanton, led the United States Ram Fleet on the Mississippi River during the Battle of Memphis on June 6, 1862.

In May 2016, the Wheeling police department vowed to begin enforcing the two ton weight and vehicle separations limits on the bridge more strictly.

On September 24, 2019, the West Virginia Department of Transportation indefinitely closed the bridge to vehicular traffic after continued public disregard of weight limit and safety signs.

The bridge was deemed safe and reopened to traffic in August after officials from the Division of Highways installed a height barrier with hard restraints to attempt to eliminate such overweight crossings.

In the time since, operators of additional vehicles over the weight limit continued to ignore the restrictions and repeatedly drove on the bridge.