The Chief John Ross (Market Street) Bridge has undergone a makeover that melds past and present in one of Chattanooga’s signature structures.

As they walked onto the bridge to watch a glowing orange sunset Friday night, Stan and Rebecca Allen, of Cleveland, Tenn., said the bridge facelift was a worthwhile project.

“There is a lot of history,” Mr. Allen said.

“It’s part of the river,” Mrs. Allen said. “It makes the riverfront what it is.”

On Saturday, thousands of residents and visitors turned out to celebrate the bridge reopening. After nearly $13 million and two years of work, the bridge is opening 41 days ahead of schedule.

Building and maintaining a bridge at the site have never been easy.

Floods and strong currents have proved damaging in years past, particularly before TVA dams that mitigate flooding.

A wooden bridge constructed by Union soldiers during the siege of Chattanooga spanned the river slightly downstream from the Market Street Bridge from 1863 until it was swept away by raging waters in 1867.

Ferry boats provided the main means of crossing the river until the Walnut Street Bridge opened in 1891. That bridge, a landmark and symbol of today’s waterfront revitalization, was closed to vehicular traffic in 1978, refurbished and reopened as a pedestrian walkway in 1993.

The advent of automobiles and development of Market Street as the city’s main business thoroughfare prompted planning for a second bridge in 1910. The span was built between 1914 and 1917.

In 1915, logs and brush carried by a winter flood swept away a 180-foot-long section of wooden framing being used to construct one of the bridge’s concrete piers. Work continued and the bridge opened in 1917.

The span is the state’s only working drawbridge and is eligible for inclusion on the National Register, of Historic Places so its restoration to “as new, but better” condition meant its historic look had to be preserved, according to TDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Osborne.

During preliminary examinations of the bridge, divers found that none of its support piers are identical below the waterline. Today, all underwater piers have been repaired either by workers inside cofferdams resting on the riverbed or by divers injecting concrete into areas undercut by 90 years of constant current, said Milton Greer of Parsons Engineering.

Workers removed the bridge’s concrete skin, peeling away layer upon layer of paving and reconstructing its internal steel skeleton. Corroded steel beams and bars were replaced, and all concrete was sealed.

The bridge’s 9-foot-wide lanes, narrower than today’s standard 12-foot-wide lanes, are the result of its original design calling for two lanes for motorized or horse-drawn vehicles and two lanes for trolley cars.

In addition to its narrow lanes, the bridge is a truss bridge, a type being eliminated throughout the state because it cannot be widened, Ms. Osborne said.

The restored bridge, narrow lanes and all, spans both time and the river.

Local developer Allen Casey said Chattanooga’s two modern bridges — the Olgiati and Veterns spans — serve as bookends to the city’s two historic bridges — the Market Street and Walnut Street bridges.

“What a beautiful picture frame for views from both sides of the river,” he said.