The Michigan Central Railway Bridge was the dream of owner/businessman Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt needed a rail link between Canada and the USA, but was not prepared to pay the high rental price which the owners of the Lower Arch Bridge were asking for in lieu of using their bridge.

Mr. Vanderbilt owned the Michigan Central Railway and had controlling interest in the Canadian Southern Railway. In lieu of paying rent, he decided to build a new bridge. Vanderbilt formed the Niagara River Bridge Company and received a charter to build a new bridge.

On April 9th 1883, the Niagara River Bridge Company signed a contract with the Central Bridge Works Company of Buffalo New York to build this bridge. The chief engineer was Charles C. Schneider.

This first bridge of cantilever design, was built across the Niagara Gorge by engineer Edmund Hayes, of the Central Bridge Works Company,   at a site just south of the Lower Arch Bridge.

Construction of this bridge began on April 15th 1883. The cantilever construction used at Niagara Falls was the first time it had been used in America. Cantilever was defined as erection by overhang.

Each end was made of a section constructed of steel extending from each shoreline nearly half way across the gorge. Each section was supported near its center by a steel tower from which extended two lever arms, one reaching the shore while the other extended over the river 175  feet  (53m) beyond the towers.

By the outer arm having no support and being subjected the same as the shore arm to the weight of the trains, a counter advantage is given to the shore arm being firmly anchored to the rock on shore. The towers on each side rose from the water level below. The bridge span was 495 feet (151m). The ends of the cantilevers extended 395 feet (120m) from the abutments leaving a gap of 120 feet (36.5m) which was filled by an ordinary truss type bridge hung form the ends of the cantilever.

Provisions had been built into this bridge to allow for expansion and contraction, allowing the ends to move freely as the temperature changed. The total length of the bridge was 910 feet (277m). It had a double track and had the capacity to bear the weight of two trains crossing at the same time producing a side pressure equal to a 75 mile per hour wind. The railway was 240 feet (73m) above the Niagara River.

On December 1st 1883, the bridge was completed. The bridge had cost $700,000 dollars.

The Cantilever Bridge remained in operation for more than forty years until much heavier modern trains came along requiring the building of the much stronger steel arch bridge.