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Bridge in Clontarf West

Bridge
Bridge in Clontarf West
Photo: Dwmalone, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Single-arched skew railway bridge, built c. 1840, carrying Dublin-Belfast Railway over Howth Road. Steel girder superstructure and steel balustrades supported on rusticated channelled limestone abutments flanked by projecting rock-faced rusticated limestone piers having cut limestone parapets with carved granite…

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Single-arched skew railway bridge, built c. 1840, carrying Dublin-Belfast Railway over Howth Road. Steel girder superstructure and steel balustrades supported on rusticated channelled limestone abutments flanked by projecting rock-faced rusticated limestone piers having cut limestone parapets with carved granite capping and cornice to base of parapet. Curved sloping roughly-hewn limestone wing walls terminating in square-plan piers, with cut granite coping to wing walls and piers.
This well-executed bridge is representative of the technical skill in engineering and masonry in the nineteenth century. Built to carry the Dublin & Drogheda Railway, which later became the Great Northern Railway, this bridge also serves the DART line and is a key part of the public transport infrastructure of Dublin City and the island of Ireland. John MacNeill, the engineer of the D&DR, may have overseen the construction of this bridge. Such girder bridges would originally have been constructed using wrought-iron, as prior to the 1870s, steel was not deemed strong enough. It is likely that the current carriageway replaces an earlier one. Forming a group with the adjacent former station building, it serves as a physical reminder of the social and industrial importance of the railway network in the late nineteenth century.

The story behind this place

This well-executed bridge is representative of the technical skill in engineering and masonry in the nineteenth century.

From the Buildings of Ireland (National Inventory of Architectural Heritage) record 50030281

This does not grant access. Most recorded buildings are privately owned; view them only from public ground unless the owner allows entry.

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More pictures of this place

Dublin, Howth Road railway bridge.
Dublin, Howth Road railway bridge. · Photo: Dwmalone · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dublin, Howth Road railway bridge.
Dublin, Howth Road railway bridge. · Photo: Dwmalone · CC BY-SA 4.0

Places near here

Photo credits
  • National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
  • Taken by Fanghong, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
  • Anonymous Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
  • JP, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Phillip Perry, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Eric Jones, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Dwmalone, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Hugh Frazer, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
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