Union engineers constructed a pontoon bridge at this site on June 20th, 1864, working under cover of night without alerting nearby Confederate pickets as they floated 25 separate pontoons into place, lashed them together, and secured them against the current while Union soldiers behind the site set up a defensive line so the bridge could be finished by dawn. Continuous bailing and repairs were then required to keep the bridge afloat and operational through the end of the war. To draw Confederate troops away from the Petersburg defenses, General Winfield Scott Hancock's 2nd Corps crossed here from the south bank of the James in the early morning hours of July 27, 1864, and later that day fought at the first battle of Deep Bottom a few miles to the north; a second battle there in August was equally unsuccessful, but a third battle in September, spearheaded by two bridges of United States Colored Troops (USCT), resulted in the capture of New Market Heights.
