The first generation of Waibaidu Bridge was built in 1856, named "Well Bridge", which is a wooden bridge. It was built by "Suzhou River Bridge Company" (the first bridge construction company in China's history) with the investment of 20 people (mostly foreign firm managers or opium dealers), including Englishman Wells who worked for Jardine Matheson and Ren Wei and Homer of Baoshun Foreign Firm. The bridge is137.25m long and 7.015m wide, with a movable deck in the middle, which should be hoisted when the ship passes by.
Wells and others, who built the bridge purely for profit, once claimed that Shanghai Daotaite granted them a patent, and pedestrians had to pay a "bridge crossing tax", which only collected taxes from Chinese, and all vehicles and servants outside the bridge were exempted. Subsequently, Shanghai residents protested angrily, and Cantonese Zhan Ruoyu set up a post office at today's Shanxi intersection to pick up and drop off Chinese passing by on both sides of the strait for free to show his unyielding. Because citizens no longer pay money, it is called "white crossing".
Due to public anger, the concession industrial and commercial office built a wooden pontoon bridge near Wells Bridge on 1876, and the bridge was free. Because it is adjacent to the Bund Park, it is named "Park Bridge". Since then, there is no charge for crossing the bridge here, so it is called "Waibaidu Bridge". Wells Bridge was demolished after it was acquired by the Ministry of Industry. This is also the origin of the second generation bridge-"Waibaidu Bridge".
During Guangxu period, after several repairs, the wooden bridge could not meet the needs of traffic development, so the Ministry of Industry decided to build another steel bridge instead. In the thirty-second year of Guangxu, the first pile was laid and completed the following year. The upper structure of the bridge is riveted steel truss supported by through pipes, and the lower structure is reinforced concrete abutment, wooden pile foundation and concrete hollow slab pier. The span combination of the two holes is 52. 12m, the elevation of the beam bottom is 5.75m, and the tram track is laid on the bridge deck. This is the third generation Waibaidu Bridge.
After the completion of the steel bridge, it has never been overhauled for more than 40 years. 1945 after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, cracks were found in the settlement of abutment, and then concrete was poured again to eliminate the danger. After liberation, many comprehensive tests and inspections were carried out, and scientific research was carried out on maintenance, and nine major overhauls were carried out successively.