From the mid- to late nineteenth century, as British railways became increasingly double-tracked, station yards expanded, and train frequencies rose, it became progressively more dangerous for passengers to cross tracks at ground level. Footbridges therefore developed into an important part of station infrastructure. Early examples were sometimes constructed in timber, but by the late nineteenth century cast iron, wrought iron, and steel had become increasingly common. The bridge deck usually crossed the station yard to connect separate platforms, with stairs at either end, and some examples were also provided with canopies.

As railway companies built stations on a large scale, footbridges increasingly adopted standardized and related design families. Although different companies varied in bridge profile, truss form, railings, and decorative details, their basic structure was often similar, and many components could be prefabricated in factories and assembled on site. Numerous late nineteenth-century standard-type footbridges survive in Britain today, including examples associated with the Great Western Railway, Midland Railway, and North Eastern Railway.

From the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, this mature form of station infrastructure also entered China together with British railway engineering. The numerous steel footbridges built along the Peking–Mukden, Peking–Hankow, Peking–Kalgan, and Shanghai–Nanking Railways shared clear similarities with contemporary British station footbridges in structure, components, and use. Some early examples even used steel manufactured in Britain and shipped to China for assembly, providing particularly direct evidence of the continuation and application of standardized British railway-station infrastructure in China.