Survey Data
Reg No
13401457
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1850 - 1855
Coordinates
221946, 272434
Date Recorded
16/06/2009
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Single-arch rail accommodation bridge over the Dublin to Sligo railway line, built c. 1854. Segmental-headed arch with rock-faced limestone voussoirs having dressed margins. Coursed squared limestone masonry to spandrels, abutments and barrel. Rubble stone parapets having terminating piers (on square-plan). Rounded roughly dressed limestone coping over parapets. Located in the rural countryside to the southeast of Longford Town and to the west of Edgeworthstown.
Appraisal
This well-built and robust railway bridge retains its early form and character. The use of rock-faced limestone for the voussoirs is typical of mid-to-late nineteenth-century railway engineering/architecture in Ireland. This bridge appears to have been an accommodation bridge as it does not carry a road, and it was probably originally built by the railway company as part compensation after the route of the railway line bisecting a farm holding. It was originally built by the Midland and Great Western Railway Company to serve the Mullingar to Sligo line, which reached as far as Longford Town in 1855 and was completed in 1862. It is an interesting feature on the rural landscape to the west of Edgeworthstown and it represents an integral component of the architectural and industrial heritage of County Longford.