The bridge was to be a suspension bridge located at the narrowest point of the gorge, south of the Whirlpool above the Whirlpool Rapids. The first challenge faced by Ellet was to get a rope across the river. This was solved when Homan Walsh won a competition to fly a kite across the river from the Canadian side. The kite string was then attached to a cord, which was then pulled across the river. This was attached to a heavier cord and that was pulled across, and the process repeated until a wire cable was finally pulled across the river. A fifty foot (15m) wooden tower was built on each bank of the river and the wire cable was passed over the top of each tower and anchored down. Then a metal basket looking like two armchairs connected together was pulled across the cable. This was on May 12, 1848. 125 brave souls paid a dollar each to make the return journey across the river. A foot bridge was completed and still more people paid a quarter to cross the river. Finally, on July 26, 1848, the bridge was finished. Charles Ellet was first to cross in horse and carriage. Ellet, however, started to charge people for crossing the bridge without having permission to do so and was fired.

The first bridge was for pedestrians and horse vehicles. It was a flimsy affair that swayed in the wind. In 1851, the bridge companies decided that they wanted to have a bridge that would carry trains and so they called in John Roebling. In his design for the first bridge, Roebling had come up with a bridge that would carry trains but the concept had met with great opposition because it was thought that a suspension bridge would not be able to carry the load. Now things had changed. Roebling's design was for a rigid box-like structure to be suspended with cables from two stone pylons at each end. Guy wires connected the bridge to the cliff walls to counter the swaying caused by the wind. Work started in 1852 and, on March 15, 1855, the locomotive London crossed the bridge. This bridge had two decks, the top deck for trains and the lower for pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles. It lasted for thirty years. Roebling went on to build the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and was killed during its construction.

By the mid-1880s, demands on the bridge had increased to the point where the bridge needed renovating. The wood and stone of Roebling's bridge were replaced with steel. The steel cables and their anchors were also replaced and the renovation was complete by 1886. This bridge, designed by Leffert Buck, lasted ten years until replaced by the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge.