Eustace Bridge

Single-arch bridge, dated 1791, carrying road over circular line of Grand Canal. Segmental arch having dressed granite voussoirs and soffits. Splayed dressed limestone abutment walls terminating in dressed limestone battered piers. Splayed dressed granite and rubble limestone wing walls, having cut granite coping. Inscribed date plaques to outer (east and west) elevations of wing walls bearing words, 'Eustace bridge 1791'. Cut granite piers with pointed capstones.

This bridge is a fine example of a Georgian-era structure designed for the Grand Canal. The cut granite voussoirs establish an elegant and neo-Classical idiom that is enhanced by the dressed granite coping stones. The canal originally terminated at the City Basin off James's Street, and the Circular Line, connecting the system with the Grand Canal Docks at Ringsend, was only completed in the 1790s. The canal network developed in the late eighteenth century and encouraged the commercialization and industrialization of the country. The bridge was constructed in 1791 and named for Lieutenant Colonel Charles Eustace, who was an M.P. and Deputy Chairman of the Grand Canal Company. In 1903, a triumphal arch was constructed on the bridge for the visit of King Edward VII.