bridge

Triple-span iron railway viaduct, erected c.1890, carrying Loop Line over Talbot Street. Flat span riveted steel girder carriageway supported on two pairs of fluted cast-iron cylindrical piers with collar and plinth mouldings and further pair of rendered piers to north (erected c.2006). Bow-string panelled and riveted central parapet with star motifs, having curved panels over supporting piers with parapets continuing across spans to either side. Maker’s insignia to plinth base of piers ‘A. Handyside & Co Ltd.’.

The Loopline Railway bridge, alternately known as the Liffey Viaduct or the City of Dublin Junction Railway, was constructed between 1889 and 1891 to link Connolly Station on the north side of the river to Westland Row on the south. A rail link was needed to aid the movement of transatlantic mail coming from Kingstown and Queenstown (now Dún Laoghaire and Cóbh). Designed by J. Chalconer Smith, engineer to the Dublin, Wicklow & Wexford Railway Company, the proposal was controversial for blocking the view to the Customs House and altered the skyline of the city. Over a century later, the bridge remains a key part of the public transport infrastructure of the city. This portion of the bridge, carrying the railway over Talbot Street, provides an interesting focal point on the streetscape, its bow-string profile and cast-iron fluted piers also provide industrial interest on the streetscape.