The bridge above provides a short-cut from the North Campus residence halls to the Ag Quad and Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, where Human Ecology classes meet. In summer, the water flow slows to a trickle, but in spring and fall, spray rises to the height of the bridge, cooling passersby.

Campus guidebooks of the late 1800s described the "University Walk," a tour that began on the southern side of the present-day Thurston Avenue Bridge, around the bend and downstream. For ten cents, visitors could cross a rustic bridge near the site of the concrete-and-steel version above, then descend a wooden stairway into the gorge below.