Built sometime around turn of the the 1800s.

When this bridge was being constructed, the sixteen plantations in the Bog Walk area were obliged to send one slave in every fifty to work on the River Road, sometimes called Sixteen Mile Walk. Gravel, marl, lime, sand and stone had to be dug. Slaves often lost their lives as they performed dangerous tasks in the Gorge. Contracts for timber and for masons to work on the bridge were authorized at vestry meetings.

Between 1881 and 1915, the floor of the bridge was washed away and later re-floored with iron girders and buckle plates taken from the original flooring of the May Pen bridge. Today, the bridge of three spans is supported by two piers and two abutments. In the 1930s it had metal handrails and later wooden ones, but these were devoured by the river at different times. Semi-circular spheres are now the only protection on the bridge itself.

The Flat Bridge is one of Jamaica’s oldest bridges

Today it is a beam bridge with no supporting rails and functions as a single lane bridge for vehicular traffic and the lesser pedestrian seeking to cross between vehicles. It has a traffic light system to manage traffic flow.