Northampton Street Bridge replaced a covered wooden bridge built by Timothy Palmer in 1805 with three spans, each about 155 feet clear, supported by two hollow piers measuring 35 feet by 55 feet and two abutments; when it was removed, that earlier bridge was next to the oldest, if not the oldest, wooden highway bridge in the United States. The present bridge, built in 1895 by Union Bridge Co., is a medium steel cantilever bridge measuring 550 feet between end pins, with two shore arms and two river arms of 125 feet each, a suspended span of 50 feet, trusses on 36-foot centers, an extreme width of 56 feet 6 inches, and a capstone on the pier at an elevation of 187.87 feet above mean tide at Sandy Hook.