The success of Roebling's Second Suspension Bridge over the Whirlpool Rapids brought a demand for a similar bridge to be built at Niagara Falls. This bridge was built about 300 yards (300m) north of the American Falls at a site called Falls View. On January 2, 1869, the bridge was opened by a carriage and four horses. The following Sunday about 10,000 people made a trip over the bridge, which had a magnificent view of the Falls. It was, however, only ten feet (3m) wide so it could only accommodate vehicular traffic in one direction at a time. When a vehicle wanted to go across in the other direction, a bell would ring to stop traffic at the other end of the bridge. Obviously, this system caused long lines and much exasperation. In 1887, the bridge was finally widened to seventeen feet (5m). The Falls View Bridge was susceptible to high winds, which would make it swing and sway. On the night of January 9, 1889, a particularly violent wind brought the bridge down. Today there are still remnants of the bridge submerged in the river.

Immediately after the disaster, work began to replace the fallen bridge. The new bridge was a duplicate of the first and took only 38 days to complete and opened on May 7, 1889.

Within ten years, the Falls View Suspension Bridge needed to be replaced to accommodate new electric trolley cars, which were too heavy for the suspension bridge. The new bridge, called the Honeymoon Bridge, was an arch bridge wide enough to take trolley cars, carriages, and pedestrians. It was located a little closer to the American Falls than the suspension bridge. Like the suspension bridges, the new bridge was susceptible to wind sway and the wooden floor became very slippery in wet weather. The suspension bridge it replaced was dismantled and moved to Queenston, where it became the second Queenston-Lewiston Bridge. The Honeymoon Bridge lasted until 1938, when a spectacular ice bridge formed around the abutments at the bottom of the bridge. Then, on January 23, 1938, a wind blew ice over the Falls, jamming the river and putting pressure on the bridge abutments. Four days later, the bridge collapsed into the gorge.

The same year that the Honeymoon Bridge collapsed saw the formation of the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission, a joint Ontario-New-York body to administer all bridges across the Niagara River. The new commission decided that it had to replace the Honeymoon Bridge with a new bridge to be located about 550 feet (168m) north of the Honeymoon Bridge site. The Rainbow Bridge is an arch and its abutments are located on the walls of the gorge about fifty feet (15m) above the river to avoid the kind of ice build-up that brought down the Honeymoon Bridge. The bridge was opened November 1, 1941.