Barrow Bridge

Eleven-span railway bridge over river, built 1902-6; opened 1906. Closed, 2010. Part creeper- or ivy-covered tuck pointed rock faced limestone ashlar battered abutment walls between tuck pointed rock faced limestone ashlar battered piers with margined rock faced cut-granite chamfered stringcourses supporting parapets having margined rock faced cut-granite chamfered coping framing series of eleven riveted steel truss girder sections on paired cylindrical piers. Sited spanning River Barrow with unkempt banks to river.

A bridge erected by Sir William Arrol and Company (established 1873) of Glasgow to designs by Sir Benjamin Baker (1840-1907) of London (Engineering 18th August 1905, 201) identified as an important component of the built heritage of south County Kilkenny on account of the connections with the development of the Fishguard and Rosslare Railway (FRR) line opened (1906) by the Fishguard and Rosslare Railways and Harbours (FRRH) Company: a Pratt-type lattice girder "swing span", included to allay concerns from the New Ross Harbour Commissioners that the bridge would impact on navigation to the port and still operated to facilitate shipping following the closure of the bridge to passenger traffic (2010), pinpoints the engineering or technical dexterity of the composition. NOTE: At the time of completion (1906) Barrow Bridge was the third longest bridge spanning entirely across water in Great Britain and Ireland, after Tay Bridge (1883-7) and the Sir Benjamin Baker-designed Forth Bridge (1882-90), and was until 1984 the longest bridge of any kind in Ireland.