A long railway bridge crosses the Seine from the right foreground to the distant left, its pale structure supported by massive stone pillars that cast soft shadows on the rippling water below. A train, dark against the sky, moves across the bridge, trailing a broad plume of white and grey steam that drifts across the upper left of the scene. The sky is filled with broken, flickering clouds, painted in soft blue and white, with dabs and strokes that echo the Impressionist interest in shifting light and atmosphere.

The composition leads the gaze along the diagonal of the bridge, from the detailed grasses in the lower right to the distant horizon, creating a sense of depth and movement across the landscape. The water of the Seine reflects the bridge and sky in shimmering strokes of blue, grey, and white, capturing the play of light on its surface. A dense cluster of dark green foliage fills the upper right corner, partially obscuring the bridge and casting shadow onto the embankment below.

On the far bank, behind the bridge, trees and bushes are rendered in deep greens and ochres, with sunlight catching the tops of the leaves. The sunlight falls most brightly on the left side of the riverbank and the tops of the bridge's pillars, highlighting their rounded forms. The water near the bottom edge of the painting is marked by short, choppy strokes of blue, grey, and white, suggesting movement and the reflection of sky and bridge above. The subject brings together elements of contemporary technology—a train and its steam locomotive—with the natural setting of the river and its banks.

The painting belongs to the Impressionism movement, as seen in the rapid, textured brushwork and the attention to light and atmosphere.