The first bridge at this location was built by the Winona and Saint Peter Railroad. It opened in May 26, 1871. The bridge was faulty and collapsed as the first train attempted to cross the Mississippi River. The bridge was rebuilt, and reopened in 1872. The Milwaukee Road used this bridge until the Chicago & Northwestern bought out the Winona and Saint Peter line. C&NW used the bridge until it became redundant in the mid-1970s. It was closed December 24, 1977.

Since closing, parts of the bridge have been removed. Most notably, the swing span has been removed from the Mississippi River main channel to improve river navigation. In addition, the Minnesota side approach has been removed, the trestle across Latsch Island is gone, a section from the north channel bridge has been removed, and a short bridge over a slough near WI-35 has been removed. The four sections of this crossing are a 1,000 foot main channel bridge, 1,000 trestle across Latsch Island, 600 foot north channel bridge, and 4,700 feet of embankment through the marsh and slough portion on the Wisconsin side (all numbers are estimates).

There was a second railroad bridge crossing the Mississippi River at Winona. It was located about 2 miles south of this bridge, and it was jointly owned by the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy and the Green Bay and Western. It was also a swing span structure. The bridge was built in 1891 and closed in 1985. It burned in 1989, and was removed in 1990.

The opening photo is the main channel span looking west towards Winona. Once can see where the bridge was removed over the island. Above is another photo of the main span, taken from Winona looking southeast. The large pier is where the swing span met the fixed portion of the bridge. The photo below is looking from the island northwest into the sun. It shows how close the rail bridge is to the highway bridge.

The photo above is one of the abandoned piers on Latsch Island. The island was prone to flooding, so the railroad ran across the island elevated about 12 feet above grade. The photo below is the north channel rail span looking southeast.

The photo above is the north channel rail span, this time looking north east from Latsch Island. Again, you can see how close the north channel road bridge is to the rail bridge. Below are the remains of a short bridge on this same rail crossing. The bridge was located on the very east end of the crossing where the rail line bends to the south.