During World War II the German Organisation Todt built a ropeway over the strait. Finished in June 1943, it had daily capacity of 1,000 tonnes. Construction of a combined road and railway bridge started in April 1943, but before it was finished, retreating German troops blew up the completed parts of the bridge and destroyed the ropeway.
In late 1944–early 1945, the Soviet Union constructed a 4.5-kilometre (2+3⁄4 mi) railway bridge across the strait. This bridge, not designed as permanent, was marred by design and construction errors, and was destroyed by flowing ice in February 1945. A proposal to repair it was quickly dismissed and the remnants of the bridge were dismantled, with permanent bridge designs envisaged instead.
In 1949 the Soviet government ordered the construction of a 5.969-kilometre (3 mi 1,248 yd) two-tier combined road-rail bridge (two road lanes on the upper tier and two rail tracks on the lower tier) with 40 m clearance below, connecting Yeni-Kale with Chushka Spit, but in 1950 construction was halted and a ferry line was set up instead.
Construction of the bridge was reconsidered by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in 2006, and the Transport Minister of Ukraine Mykola Rudkovsky stated that he expected the bridge to be a "net positive for Crimea" as it would allow "every tourist visiting Russian Caucasus to visit Crimea as well". The issue was discussed by prime ministers of both countries in 2008, and a Transport Strategy of Russia, adopted in that year, envisaged the construction of the Kerch Strait bridge as a high priority issue for the development of the Southern Federal District's transport infrastructure in the period 2016–2030, with the design ready by 2015.
In 2010, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the Kharkiv Pact, an agreement to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait, and Russia and Ukraine signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of the bridge on 26 November 2010. A 2011 study by the Ukrainian government announced preliminary preference for a route between Cape Fonar and Cape Maly Kut. Had that project been carried out, it would have meant construction of a 10.92 km (6 mi 1,382 yd) bridge link, with 49 km (30+1⁄2 mi) of adjacent roads and 24 km (15 mi) of adjacent railroads.
The shelving of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement in November 2013 led to increased interest in the construction of a bridge between Crimea and the Taman Peninsula of Russia, and an agreement on the construction of that bridge was signed as a part of the 17 December 2013 Ukrainian–Russian action plan. In late January 2014, the Ukrainian and Russian governments decided that a new joint Ukrainian–Russian company would be commissioned to handle the construction of the bridge, while the Russian state enterprise Russian Highways (commonly known as Avtodor) would become responsible for the bridge in the long term.
In the following months, as relations between Ukraine and Russia deteriorated, bilateral negotiations over the bridge collapsed, yet Russia claimed that it expected the December 2013 deals to be honoured, and on 3 March prime minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a governmental decree to create a subsidiary of Avtodor to oversee the project. A contest for the engineering survey of the bridge project was announced by that subsidiary on 18 March, but by that time the premise of the contest, which still referred to 2013 agreements, was already outdated. In April 2014, following the Russian annexation of Crimea the Ukrainian government gave Russia six months' notice of its withdrawal from the now-defunct bilateral Kerch Bridge agreement.
It was decided a special working group would determine the location and set the technical parameters. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine estimated that construction would take five years and cost between US$1.5 and $3 billion. In early February 2014, Avtodor was instructed by the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia to work on a feasibility study to be published in 2015.
Following the Russian annexation of Crimea in March 2014 amid a sharp deterioration in Ukrainian-Russian relations, Russia declared it would unilaterally build the Kerch Strait bridge to connect the Russian mainland with the annexed Ukrainian peninsula. The project was strategic, an instrumental part of Russian plans to integrate the newly annexed territory into Russia. The project aimed to shift Crimean dependence on Ukraine and reduce Kyiv's leverage, remove Moscow's reliance upon inadequate sea and air links for supplying the peninsula, and allow Russia to independently supply Crimea, whose economy has become dependent upon significant subsidies from Moscow. The bridge has a symbolic purpose: it is meant to show Russia's resolve to hold Crimea, and as a "physical" attachment of Crimea to Russian territory.
The announcement that Russia would build a road-rail bridge over the strait was made by the Russian President Vladimir Putin on 19 March 2014, just one day after Russia formally claimed Crimea. In January 2015, the contract for construction of the bridge was awarded to the SGM Group, whose owner Arkady Rotenberg (reportedly a close personal friend of Putin) was internationally sanctioned in response to the Russian military's involvement in Ukraine. SGM typically constructed pipelines and had no experience building bridges, according to BBC News.
The Russian government's draft resolution of 1 September 2014 required the bridge to have four lanes of vehicle traffic and a double-track railway.
In January 2015 the multibillion-dollar construction contract for the bridge was awarded to Arkady Rotenberg's Stroygazmontazh. Construction began in February 2016. The road bridge was inaugurated by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 15 May 2018. It opened for cars on 16 May and for trucks on 1 October. The rail bridge was inaugurated on 23 December 2019 and the first scheduled passenger train crossed the bridge two days later. The bridge was opened for freight trains on 30 June 2020. A record amount of traffic, totalling 36,393 cars, was recorded on 15 August 2020.
Preliminary work on the bridge began in May 2015. More than 200 bombs and a few aeroplanes (including an Ilyushin Il-2 and a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk) from the World War II era were found in the area during pre-construction clearance. Three temporary bridges were built, to facilitate access (independent of weather and currents) for main construction. By October 2015, the first of the temporary bridges had been constructed, connecting Tuzla Island and Taman Peninsula.
An official video from October 2015 contained a CGI concept of the bridge design, annotated with various measurements. It showed a four-lane, flat deck highway bridge running parallel with the separate two-track railway. The main span over the Kerch Strait shipping channel would have a steel arch support, 227 m (745 ft) wide with a 35 m (115 ft) clearance above the water to allow ships to pass under. There would be three segments: from the Taman Peninsula to Tuzla Spit is 7 km (4 mi); across Tuzla Island is 6.5 km (4 mi); and from Tuzla Island to the Crimean Peninsula is 5.5 km (3+1⁄2 mi) (19 km or 12 mi total).
Main construction started in February 2016. The first piles were installed in early 2016, and in April 2016 the first pillar of the road bridge was constructed. The foundations of the road bridge were completed in August 2017. The two shipping channel arches (over the Kerch–Yenikale Canal) were lifted into position in August and October that year.
The road bridge, opened in 2018, quickly overtook the Kerch Strait ferry as a preferred route of communication between Crimea and Russia. In its first 12 hours of operation the bridge broke the traffic record of the ferry, which had been established in August 2017. After the bridge was opened for trucks in October 2018, truck transportation via the ferry virtually ceased. After the first full year of operation (May 2018 – May 2019) the road bridge had served three times more traffic than the Kerch Strait ferry had served in the whole of 2017.
In October 2017, National Guard of Russia Director Viktor Zolotov announced the formation of a new "maritime brigade", intended to protect the bridge as part of Russia's Southern Military District. In December 2017 all road pillars and spans were completed, by April 2018 asphalt concrete was laid onto the road bridge, and after some examination the road bridge was deemed ready for operation.
The bridge was named the Crimean Bridge after an online vote in December 2017, whilst Kerch Bridge and Reunification Bridge were the second and third most popular choices respectively.
On 15 May 2018, the road bridge was officially unveiled. President Vladimir Putin led a convoy of trucks, driving one himself, across the bridge in an inauguration ceremony. The bridge was opened for non-truck vehicle traffic on 16 May 2018 and for trucks on 1 October.
These restrictions, including Russian inspections of ships, had risen sharply since the bridge opened in May 2018, some being forced to wait for three days before being allowed through. Additionally, due to the height limits of the main span of the bridge (33 to 35 metres (108 to 115 ft) above sea level) the Ukrainian maritime authority said many ships are too big to pass safely under the bridge. The bulk carrier Copan (deadweight tonnage 17,777 tons) solved this problem by cutting off the top of her mast. On 26 October 2018, The Globe and Mail, citing Ukrainian sources, reported that the bridge had reduced Ukrainian shipping from its Sea of Azov ports by about 25%.
The construction of the rail bridge continued. In June 2018 pile installation was finished, and in July 2018 deployment of the rail tracks started.
Since the road bridge is free of charge, in contrast to the ferry, it is claimed that users of the bridge saved more than 16 billion rubles. The bridge is said to have contributed to an increase of the number of tourists visiting the Crimea, with bridge traffic peaking in the summer months – on 5 August 2018 the bridge broke a single-day record for car traffic, with 32,000 vehicles crossing the span, followed by over 33,000 vehicles on 12 August that year and over 35,000 a year later. The long roadway with few diversions occasionally becomes congested, with long traffic queues.
In October 2018, the Russian Taman Road Administration reported that as one of the railway spans was being lowered into place, it tilted and fell into the sea. This occurred in the sea section between Tuzla Spit and Tuzla Island. In November 2018 the installation of the railway pillars was completed.
In November 2018, the area near the bridge became the site of the Kerch Strait incident, in which the Russian navy claimed that three Ukrainian vessels entered Russian territorial waters. Russian forces seized the vessels and arrested their crews. During this time, passage through the Strait was blocked by a large cargo ship, placed under the bridge to prevent passage of other craft. In response, Ukraine declared martial law in some regions of the country for 30 days.
Since December 2018 the United Nations General Assembly has repeatedly condemned the construction and opening of the bridge as "facilitating the further militarization of Crimea" and "restricting the size of ships that can reach the Ukrainian ports on the Azov coast". Russia, on the other hand, asserted that it "shall not ask for anybody's permission to build transport infrastructure for the sake of the population of Russian regions".
On 24 March 2019 the bridge's press centre reported completion of construction of railway spans, and on 18 July it reported completion of the bridge's rail tracks. In October 2019, the opening for freight trains was postponed until 2020, the official cause was a delay in the construction of the connecting railroad caused by the discovery of an ancient site on the Kerch Peninsula. Sale of train tickets across the Kerch Strait started in November 2019. On 18 December 2019 the rail bridge was deemed ready for operation, and President Putin formally opened the bridge on 23 December. The first scheduled passenger train crossed the bridge on 25 December 2019, while the bridge was opened for freight trains on 30 June 2020.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine planned and called for the "destruction" of the bridge, bringing criticism and talks of guaranteed protection of the bridge from Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin Press Secretary.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the bridge was attacked on multiple occasions. On 8 October 2022 an explosion occurred on the roadway leading from Russia to Crimea, causing parts of the road bridge to collapse and starting a large fire on the rail bridge. On 23 February 2023 the Russian government announced that the road bridge had been fully reopened to traffic, and on 5 May it announced that the rail bridge had been fully reopened. On 17 July 2023 another explosion occurred adjacent to the road bridge, causing a section to collapse, Ukraine claimed both attacks. On 12 August 2023 the bridge was the target of another attack. The bridge was fully reopened on 14 October.
During the invasion there were two large explosions, in October 2022 and July 2023, on the bridge. According to the BBC a source in Ukraine's security service said that the 2023 explosion was caused by a Ukrainian attack with unmanned surface vessels (aquatic drones). Russia attributed the attacks to "Ukrainian terrorism". A Ukrainian defence official also said that Ukraine had carried out the October 2022 attack; the BBC was unable to verify the claims independently.
On 8 October 2022 a major explosion occurred on the bridge, causing portions of the Crimea-bound road segment to collapse and causing several oil tanker wagons on the rail section to catch fire. Vladimir Konstantinov, Chairman of the State Council of Crimea, attributed the explosion to a Ukrainian attack. Limited traffic resumed on the remaining lines shortly afterwards. Russian authorities ordered repairs to be complete by July 2023.
On 6 January 2023, TASS reported that the first two spans of the left side of the Crimean Bridge's automobile part leading from the peninsula would be installed that month, with two more to be installed in February, the Federal Road Agency (Rosavtodor) said in a message.
The road bridge was fully opened again to traffic on 23 February 2023 according to an announcement from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin. On 5 May the deputy prime minister also announced that the rail bridge had been fully reopened.
In a speech to the Aspen Security Forum in July 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the bridge a legitimate military target for Ukraine that must be "neutralized" for "feeding the war with ammunition" and "militarizing the Crimean Peninsula."
In the early morning of 17 July 2023 two explosions hit the Crimean Bridge. At least one section of the road bridge collapsed entirely, and rail services were stopped. Two people, a couple who were in a car on the bridge, were killed, and their child injured. The bridge was struck twice before 03:00 according to reports on social media; Ukrainian and Russian sources indicated that the explosion was caused by a Ukrainian attack with unmanned surface vessels (aquatic drones). The bridge was fully reopened on 14 October.
The final concept was a major change from the initial project considered in late 2014, which had envisaged construction of two bridge links (parallel road and rail bridges between the Taman Peninsula and the Tuzla Spit and a double deck road-rail bridge between Tuzla Island and the Kerch Peninsula) and a causeway on Tuzla Spit. This design was scrapped, the causeway being deemed too risky to rely on given the instability of the Tuzla Spit.