The original bridge was a wooden structure on masonry pillars, the timberwork being replaced in 1881 by the present cast iron structure built by Andrew Handyside of Derby for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. According to Keith Gale, an expert on iron & stel who visited the site for English Heritage, 'the viaduct was constructed in cast iron at a time when there was considerable alarm following the failing of cast iron during the Tay Bridge Disaster in December 1879 making it one of the last, if not the last, major railway structure in cast iron’. KH