Binns Bridge

Single-arch bridge, erected c.1795, carrying road over Royal Canal. Rubble limestone parapet wall with dressed limestone string course, dressed granite copings and carved oval limestone plaque. Elliptical arch, springing from side walls of canal, with moulded granite voussoirs and vermiculated granite keystone. Water and gas pipes to east and west elevations. Abutting north side of bridge is double-arch stone rail bridge of c.1864. Snecked limestone wing walls with dressed granite copings.

The canal bridge is well executed with good quality masonry. Together with the adjacent canal lock and railway bridge it forms an important group of transport-related structures. The Royal Canal was developed in the latter part of the eighteenth century to provide freight and passenger transport between Dublin and the River Shannon. This bridge was named for John Binns, one of the principal supporters of Royal Canal, and its construction is commemorated in a carved stone plaque on each face. In the mid-nineteenth century the canal was purchased by the Midland Great Western Railway company and a branch line to North Wall was constructed along this section of the canal in the 1860s.