[1] A Syracuse-based builder copied Squire Whipple's original bowstring truss design, the patent for which had expired by the time of its construction.

[3] The wooded, park-like area gives way to a more developed residential neighborhood along the north side of today's Delaware Avenue (NY 443), opposite a large cemetery.

[2] On top, the chords form an arch of nine tangential castings of an inverted-U cast-iron bars which compress in response to a load.

They are matched by bottom chords of two lines of nine wrought-iron open links, made from one-and-a-half-inch (38 mm) square bars, which restrain the compression.

[2][4] The four central vertical members on each side are inverted V's of two 5⁄8-inch (15.9 mm) bars welded together at the top and inserted into the floor beams via threaded bottom ends.

Albany resident Squire Whipple is considered the first bridge builder in the United States to apply scientific principles to the field,[citation needed] moving it from what had that point been primarily a tradesman's domain toward that of the civil engineer.

[4] Seven years before writing his book, he had realized that the Erie Canal, slowly nearing completion across the state, would require hundreds of bridges.

The state of New York chose the design as its standard for the canal—then avoided royalties, under the law of that time, by declaring the bridges were being built "for the public good."

A complete span could shipped to its desired location in small pieces and put together quickly, without too many specialized tools, anchored by abutments built at necessary on site.

[citation needed] At the time the bridge was surveyed by the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), around 1969, only cars were allowed over it due to its age.

Eventually the city of Albany bought the farm, using it as a park, a training facility and stables for police horses and an environmental education center.

Early in the 21st century it had to close the bridge to vehicles and to all traffic during the winter months[5] when some small cracks were detected during an inspection.