Songpan's covered bridge crosses the Minjiang River and serves as both a thoroughfare and a small market, with shops selling local goods occupying the covered walkway on both sides. The current structure has been rebuilt and repaired multiple times, but the form is consistent with the style established during the Ming period, when the bridge served as a commercial buffer zone between the walled Han town and the markets used by Tibetan and Qiang traders from the surrounding mountains.
The bridge is best visited in the early morning when local traders set up and before the tourist circuit begins. The river runs fast below it even in the dry season, and the mountain context — steep forested slopes rising directly from the valley floor on both sides — gives the bridge the proportions of a miniature. From the West Gate rampart, looking down into the town, the covered bridge is the most distinctive single element of the townscape.