Survey Data
Reg No
50010145
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1885 - 1895
Coordinates
316396, 234762
Date Recorded
03/11/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Single-span iron railway viaduct, erected c.1890, carrying Loop Line railway over Store Street. Flat span riveted steel girder carriageway supported on rock-faced limestone and yellow brick abutment walls (obscured by billboard to east). Panelled and riveted iron parapets with later steel railings over. Line continues to east and west, carried on series of round arches with brick soffits, random coursed rock-faced limestone piers, spandrels and parapets with brick coping. Square-profile cast-iron rainwater downpipes inset to walls between arches, opening at base of carriageway. Painted render surrounding some arches, some blocked, some with square-headed openings having double-leaf metal doors.
Appraisal
The Loop Line 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 Custom House and altering 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 Store Street, with its series of stone and brick arches provides an industrial focal point on the streetscape.