Carts, carriages, goods, livestock and passengers were loaded onto massive barges propelled by skilful boatmen affiliated with a guild based in Mèlide, to avoid this trouble many goods coming from the north were therefore transported via Ponte Tresa or Luino, along the shores of Lake Verbano. A direct way towards Lombardy's commercial centres became more and more urgent for the Lugano area. Thus, in 1843, the Ticino Government began construction of a bridge-dam between Mèlide and Bissone, designed by the engineer Pasquale Lucchini of Montagnola (1798-1892). The work lasted four years and ended in October 1847, date of its inauguration.

In 1871, the Gotthard Railway was founded and with it the St. Gotthard tunnel was started. At the same time, the first sections of railway were laid in Ticino, and in 1874 the Bellinzona-Biasca, Bellinzona-Locarno and Lugano-Chiasso lines were opened. The bridge-dam had to be widened to place a track on it, which was doubled up in 1947 with a further enlargement. The arrival of the motorway in the 1960s and 1970s led to yet another extension which resulted in the width of the causeway reaching 45 metres.

This stele, designed by two descendants of Pasquale Lucchini, architects Aldo Lucchini and Raoul Casella Lucchini, was erected upon the centenary of the bridge-dam.