The Union Railway Company planned to extend their Fordham Road streetcar line from the Bronx to Manhattan when the bridge was announced. By late 1908, after the opening of the bridge, the Union Railway applied for permission for a Manhattan extension. After the permission was granted, streetcar service across the bridge began in November 1910. The bridge was designated as part of U.S. Route 9X in December 1934, which was renumbered to New York State Route 9X shortly afterward. The highway designation was deleted in the 1940s. The Fordham Road streetcar service was replaced with the Bx19 bus, later the Bx12 bus, in 1948. The next year, the deck was replaced and the streetcar tracks were removed. A freestanding gantry for the streetcar's electric wires remained on the swing span's eastern end through the 1980s.