New Bridge

Single-arched road bridge over Black River, built c.1860. Constructed using coursed rusticated limestone rubble with rusticated rock-faced limestone voussoirs. Projecting string course at road level. Dressed limestone barrel-shaped coping over parapet and terminating piers, on square-plan to either end (north and south). Located to the west of Rathowen.

A robustly-built bridge, of mid nineteenth-century appearance, which is a pleasing feature in the rural landscape. The good quality heavily rusticated masonry is a typical feature of the many bridges built by Board of Works in the mid nineteenth-century, particularly between c.1847-60, suggesting that they may have been responsible for its construction. Indeed, this bridge is very similar in form to a number of larger bridges over the River Inny (located a short distance to the east), dated 1857, suggesting that this bridge was built as part of a drainage/building programme at this time. As the name suggests, this bridge replaced an earlier, narrower road bridge indicated on an 1837 map of the area. New Bridge represents an important element of the civil engineering Heritage of County Westmeath and is an attractive structure in its own right.