The bridge was opened in 1956 as one of the last links in the replacement of the old alignment of Pennsylvania Route 71 with a new four-lane freeway between Washington and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. During the same year of the bridge's completion, it was announced that the highway would become part of Interstate 70; it took on this designation in 1964 after the completion of freeway stretches in neighboring West Virginia linked PA 71 to a similar freeway in Ohio.
Part of a busy truck route, the bridge is part of a highway that has been plagued by surface problems. In 1989, a crack in the superstructure, the result of a 35-year-old construction error, forced the closure of the bridge for five days, stranding truckers. The bridge was rehabilitated in 2000.