Bridge was first built by the St. Cloud, St. Paul, and Pacific Railroad for its Minneapolis to Moorhead line. The Railraod became the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba in 1878, later to become the Great Northern Railroad. The GN became part of the Burlington Northern in 1970, and is now part of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe. The BNSF sold the bridge and track west of St. Cloud to a short line named Northern Lines Railway which is part of the Anacostia & Pacific Company. The A&P specializes in taking over older rail lines and creating short line operations.

The bridge has some extra steel bracing hanging down under the main bridge structure. This was added in 1922 to increase the load carrying capacity of the bridge as ever larger railroad equipment became available. The strengthening project project also included adding a third truss down the middle of the bridge structure. This bridge saw traffic of 20 or more trains a day as recently as the early 1990s. With the BNSF merger and this line being sold off to a short line, rail traffic is down to one or two trains a day.