The original Grand River Avenue Bridge crossed what had been the Pere Marquette Railway line as part of U.S. Route 16, the highway running from Detroit to Grand Haven. Built by the Michigan State Highway Department, it took 14 months to construct after work began in October 1924. Part of its construction was carried out through the State Force Account Program, which used state prison inmates as laborers, and approximately 700 inmates worked on state highway projects during the 1925-1926 construction season; two men died during construction of the bridge. The structure was a three-span, reinforced camelback girder bridge supported by four piers, measuring 146 feet, nine inches long and 48 feet wide, with a 30-foot roadway, 6-foot sidewalks on each side, and pedestrian stairways leading down to the adjacent Novi train station, which then had considerable passenger rail service. After construction of the I-96 expressway, jurisdiction over the road and bridge passed to the Road Commission for Oakland County, which replaced the deteriorated original bridge in 2003; the new bridge has the longest span of any Road Commission for Oakland County-owned bridge in Oakland County.