The Winter Canal began as a channel dug between 1718 and 1719, connecting the
Neva and
Moyka Rivers in the vicinity of the . A wooden lifting
drawbridge was built spanning the canal at Bolshaya Nemetskaya Street, present day Millionnaya Street, between 1718 and 1720. It was rebuilt as a triple-span fixed bridge, again in wood, in the mid-eighteenth century. In 1768 a single-span stone arched bridge was built over the nearby
Red Canal, which also connected the Neva and Moika, along the western edge of the Tsaritsyn Meadow, now the
Field of Mars. This bridge, which carried Bolshaya Nemetskaya Street over the Red Canal, was designed by
Yury Felten and I. G. Rossi, with its construction supervised by engineer T. I. Nasonov. The Red Canal was filled in by 1780, having become unnecessary, and occupying land wanted for construction. The stone bridge was dismantled between 1783 and 1784, taken piece by piece to the Winter Canal, and reassembled there, replacing the wooden bridge dating from 1768. The canal embankment was in the process of being faced in granite at this time. beyond The wooden bridge in this location was initially called the German Bridge () from 20 April 1738, after Bolshaya Nemetskaya Street, meaning Great German Street. The name came from the large proportion of Germans who settled in the area, causing it to be termed the "German Settlement". The term German Bridge appears on maps, while the name "Bridge of the Old Winter Palace" () was also in common use. The street was later renamed Millionnaya, with the new stone bridge becoming Millionnaya Bridge. The name Transfiguration Bridge () appears on an 1828 map of the city, after the
Preobrazhensky Regiment, who had their barracks close to the site of the bridge. From 1829 it was called the Winter Bridge, after the canal it crossed. With the construction of a new bridge across the canal in 1940 it has been called the First Winter Bridge, to distinguish it from the
Second Winter Bridge. In 1955 the bridge underwent repairs to its stone vaulting and roadway, by Lengiproinzhproekt, and overseen by engineer B. B. Levin. The bridge has preserved its architectural appearance unchanged since the 18th century, and has been designated an object of historical and cultural heritage of federal significance. ==References==