A new bridge has been lowered into place across one of Oxford’s most historic streets.

The pedestrian bridge forms the centrepiece of a major development at Pembroke College.

It is believed to be the first new bridge over one of Oxford’s historic city centre streets since the Bridge of Sighs a century ago.

Made of steel, the bridge spans Brewer Street, linking Pembroke with a new quad being built on the other side of the narrow road.

The glass sides of the bridge and railings will be added next month.

St Aldate’s had to be closed to traffic early yesterday as the structure arrived on a lorry.

Alan Berman, of Oxford architects Berman Guedes Stretton, said it was a thin and slender structure built over a surviving section of the medieval city wall, a scheduled ancient monument.

The bridge had to be positioned higher than originally intended to meet county council engineers’ specifications, because Brewer Street is classed as a major highway.

The bridge will come into use in October.

Pembroke’s bursar John Church, inset, said: “Building a bridge in a conservation area was potentially tricky. We wanted something simple.”