In 1797, Wendel and Anne Bowman built a three-story stone mill beside this bridge, and it stood there for more than two hundred years. Bowman petitioned the courts to build a road, or "cartway," near the bridge to the village of Strasburg so farmers could bring their grain to his mill. In 1803, inhabitants of Strasburg and Lampeter reported that the old wooden bridge here had become frail, dangerous, decayed, and ruinous, but county money was not granted for a new bridge. Citizens petitioned again in 1821, and a new bridge was finally built in 1824 near the mill, then owned by Christian Brackbill. Henry Neff bought the adjoining mill property in 1874, giving the bridge its name. In 1875, James C. Carpenter rebuilt the bridge at a cost of $1,860.00.