- You would not think it, but the bridge as you know it today is not all that old at all. The current bridge was completed almost 90 years ago and a restoration took place in the 1970s. The bridge owes its name to an original bridge on the same spot that was built around 1670. Back then the bridge was still called the Kerkstraatbrug.
- The Magere Brug is a double bascule bridge and consists of two halves that open in the middle to let boats pass. Originally the bridge was operated by hand. That was a complicated and sometimes even dangerous job, because both halves of the bridge had to come down at exactly the same time. Since 1994 the bridge has been opened and closed electrically.
- The Magere Brug was filmed for the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. During the filming there was also a remarkable incident when a houseboat resident used a starting pistol to express his displeasure at the speedboats tearing along the Amstel for the film.
- There are several stories about the name of the bridge. The most plausible is that the original Kerkstraatbrug was so narrow that pedestrians could barely walk side by side. The narrow Kerkstraatbrug soon came to be popularly known as the Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge). Another story is that of the Mager sisters, who lived on either side of the Amstel and built a bridge to get to each other's houses quickly. Although this story still does the rounds on canal boats, it has never been proven.
