The main street is very unusual, and rises to a steep hill. Banbridge used to be an important stop on the Belfast to Dublin stagecoach route and the town's best known feature is the underpass constructed in 1834 known as The Cut. It is thought that this was the first underpass ever built, and was done to allow horses to pass through the centre of the town without fainting before they reached the top of the hill.

Patrick Bronte, father of the famous literary sisters, was born here.  It was his tales of the Mourne Mountains that appears to have inspired the bleak setting for Emily's Wuthering Heights.