Grafton Bridge was at the forefront of construction technology when it was built in 1907-1910, having the world's largest single span of reinforced concrete. Occupying a dramatic position across Grafton Gully in Auckland, the bridge was commissioned by the local council to link the city centre with the new hospital and sports grounds in Auckland Domain. Its construction was part of a programme of regional roadbuilding, and was seen to symbolise both the creation of a 'Greater Auckland' and state leadership in the development of technology. Sanctioned by ratepayers at the very end of the British colonial period (1840-1907), it also displayed the new Dominion's ability to lead the world in its progressive outlook. The work was started by the Ferro-Concrete Company of Australasia, but was completed by council staff after the scale of the project bankrupted the initial contractors.

The bridge has a large central span of 97.6 m, with three smaller spans on its eastern approach and six on its west. It is 296 m long and built entirely of reinforced concrete, with the girders in its approaches being claimed as the longest continuous segments in the world at the time. Electric street lighting - which was unusual in the early 1900s - lit the raised pavements and provision was made for two-way road traffic. Little maintenance was required in its first decades, although two programmes of repair were carried out in the 1930s and 1950s. The bridge is still used as a major thoroughfare, and has seen further small modifications in the 1990s.

Grafton Bridge is of national and international significance for its use of advanced concrete technology, and is an important symbol of national and civic pride. It has considerable value as a major construction project, instigated and completed by local government authorities. The structure provides valuable information about the development of road transport, and was the first major road bridge in Auckland. It has played a significant role in the lives of ordinary Aucklanders as a link to Auckland Hospital and the recreation grounds in the Auckland Domain. Constructed with its foundations in an early colonial cemetery, it demonstrates early twentieth-century civic attitudes to the past and to the dead. It has considerable value as a prominent landmark, and is part of a larger historical landscape that includes Symonds Street cemetery.