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[Display omitted] • Triazole-Based Estradiol dimers inhibit tubulin assembly in vitro. • Triazole-Based Estradiol dimers reversibly disrupt microtubule structures in U2OS cells. • Triazole-Based Estradiol dimers show cytotoxic activities on cancer cell lines, arrest cells in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle and attenuate DNA/RNA synthesis. • Structural changes in the bridge are essential for the activity of estradiol dimers at the cytoskeletal level. • Simple linkers seem more suitable than more complex ones, bulky groups (benzyl pendants), are reducing the activity. Microtubule dynamic is exceptionally sensitive to modulation by small-molecule ligands. Our previous work presented the preparation of microtubule-targeting estradiol dimer (ED) with anticancer activity. In the present study, we explore the effect of selected linkers on the biological activity of the dimer. The linkers were designed as five-atom chains with carbon, nitrogen or oxygen in their centre. In addition, the central nitrogen was modified by a benzyl group with hydroxy or methoxy substituents and one derivative possessed an extended linker length. Thirteen new dimers were subjected to cytotoxicity assay and cell cycle profiling. Dimers containing linker with benzyl moiety substituted with one or more methoxy groups and longer branched ones were found inactive, whereas other structures had comparable efficacy as the original ED (e.g. D1 with IC 50 = 1.53 µM). Cell cycle analysis and immunofluorescence proved the interference of dimers with microtubule assembly and mitosis. The proposed in silico model and calculated binding free energy by the MM-PBSA method were closely correlated with in vitro tubulin assembly assay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]