The Swiss National Railways held a Europe-wide competition to build the largest engineering structure on the Winterthur – Singen railway line. In the spring of 1874, she commissioned the winner of the competition, the Paris-based company Cail & Cie., To build the superstructure and the pillars. Often in older publications, Gustave Eiffel was incorrectly named as the bridge designer. The establishment was commissioned by the Viennese company Cless & Teyber.
The foundation work began in December 1874 and the bases for the bridge piers were completed on April 8th. After the construction of the three wrought-iron pillars weighing a total of 110 tons, assembly of the 445-ton superstructure began in May. This was carried out with the help of a wooden teaching framework that was manufactured in Stein am Rhein and loosened in sections on the Rhine to the construction site. The test loading followed on July 8, 1875, and the structure was put into operation a few days later. Growing train masses led to several reinforcement measures on the bridge over time. Between 1894 and 1901, the longitudinal, transverse and main girders were strengthened with additional belt straps. In 1936, T-beams were welded on and the gusset plates were reinforced in 1964. The last extensive repairs followed in 1980.
In 1969 passenger trains were discontinued and in 2004 all train traffic. In April 2006, the Hemishofen Railway Bridge Foundation was established, which, in accordance with the purpose of the foundation, acquired the Rhine Bridge from the SBB and returned it to its original use as a railway bridge as part of a museum train operation. The SBB had it with 950,000.– SFr. the exemption from the obligations regarding maintenance, security and any dismantling of the structure that may be necessary.