The bridge was completed in 1919 and is 490 meters long and 40 meters high. One controversial feature when first designed was the inclusion of a second deck for rail transport. Although it drove up the price of the construction, the designer, Edmund Burke, demanded its construction. In the end this proved to save millions of dollars in 1966 when the TTC opened the Bloor Line subway running along the deck.
The Bloor Street Viaduct was the site of frequent suicide jumps. A 1997 report from the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario cited the average of one person jumping from the bridge every 22 days. The bridge became known as a "suicide magnet", prompting the construction of a controversial suicide barrier. The so-called Luminous Veil was completed in 2003, and is comprised of a tensioned wires stretched to cantilevered girders.