Survey Data
Reg No
50010117
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1890 - 1895
Coordinates
316616, 234955
Date Recorded
10/11/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Railway bridge, erected 1891, forming component of City of Dublin Junction Railway or Loop Line Bridge, carrying railway tracks over Amiens Street. Comprises central steel span supported on double row of piers spanning road, masonry span to southwest and red brick spans to northeast. Steel girder base over carriageway having steel panels forming parapets. Carriageway supported on cylindrical cast-iron fluted columns with round plinth bases and moulded detailing to neck. Maker’s insignia to plinth base of piers 'A. Handyside & Co Ltd./Derby London'. Square-plan yellow brick piers on brown brick plinth bases to southeast of bridge. Yellow brick abutment walls to ends of steel span having block-and-start limestone quoins and limestone coping. Masonry span to southwest with segmental arch having red brick voussoirs, rusticated coursed limestone spandrel and parapet walls and red brick coping, splayed limestone abutments to southwest of span. Double arch to northeast of central span with segmental arches, red brick voussoirs, red brick spandrel and parapet walls, arches blocked.
Appraisal
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), although this proposed viaduct was controversial as it blocked the view to the Customs House and altered the skyline of the city. More than a century on, it remains a key part of the public transport infrastructure of the city. This portion of the bridge, carrying the railway over Amiens Street into Connolly Station, provides an interesting focal point within the streetscape, its aesthetically-pleasing cast-iron fluted piers providing a point of visual and technological interest. The viaduct was designed by J. Chalconer Smith, then engineer to the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway Company and cost around £350,000 to complete.