The Silver Bridge was built in 1928 as a toll bridge by the Gallia Bridge Company. On December 15, 1967, it collapsed killing 46 people. Two bodies, a woman and a child, were never recovered. Their names are engraved on the top beam of the new bridge.

Odd events in the area several months prior to the collapse of the bridge included the appearance of a "Mothman," which led to the 1976 book, The Mothman Prophecies, by author John Keel, and a 2002 movie by the same name starring Richard Gere.

Another theory blamed the collapse on a legendary curse of the area by Shawnee Chief Cornstalk, who was murdered nearby during the American Revolutionary War.