The Albert Bridge is the oldest large road bridge in the Adelaide city area, having been built in 1879. The foundation stone for the Albert Bridge was laid on 20th August 1878 by the Mayor of Adelaide. The Bridge was opened in May 1879 and was named after Prince Albert, Consort of Queen Victoria, to honour his visit to the colony that year, hence its name.

A newspaper editorial in 1867 unashamedly stated that by making the monarch's name a household word with street and town nomenclature, the population would never forget the importance of their relationship with their distant sovereign. Queen Victoria and her consort prince were viewed as one of the great love matches of history, and this pairing has been symbolised for more than 140 years in the City of Adelaide the form of the Victoria Tower (part of the Post Office) and the Albert Tower (part of the Town Hall), both of which are in King William Street.
Designed by engineers John H Grainger and H E Worsley and built by M C Davies and J Wishart under the supervision of City Surveyor J H Langdon, the Albert Bridge replaced a timber bridge built some twenty years earlier. Grainger also designed the Princes Bridge in Melbourne some seven years after designing this bridge.
Albert Bridge consists of three-span scalloped iron girders, cast iron cylindrical piers (which were equipped with bottom-cutting shoes and carried 4.5m down into the river gravels by excavation carried out by a diver), elegant cast iron handrails and stone abutments. The Bridge is 36.6m long and carries Frome Street across the River Torrens the Adelaide Zoo.

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