The Vertical Lift Bridge design was invented in 1893 and first introduced in Chicago with the South Halsted Street Bridge. The Caddo Lake Drawbridge, built in 1914, is a direct descendent of that historic structure. This bridge replaced a ferry that operated nearby.
In the mid 1940, it was determined that there was no longer a need for the bridge to open and the cement counterweights were dropped into the lake. Around 1989, a new, wider, bridge was built nearby and the old drawbridge was turned over to the Caddo Parish in 1995. The bridge has been barricaded to vehicular traffic and the land has been converted into a park.
Because of it's designers, Waddell & Harrington of Midland Bridge Co., the inventor of the Vertical Lift Bridge, and the fact that it is the sole surviving example of this bridge type in Louisiana, it has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.