Survey Data
Reg No
50120208
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1895 - 1900
Coordinates
316988, 235907
Date Recorded
18/11/2017
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Double-span railway bridge, dated 1898, to carry former Great Southern & Western Railway (Amiens Street & North Wall Branch), with one span crossing Ballybough Road. Steel lattice box-truss girders, with decorative cast-iron openwork panels to outer face, and having superstructure supported by rusticated masonry abutment having rusticated limestone parapet with rusticated limestone capping and platband to west, and cast-iron fluted column between spans and having hexagonal-plan cap with date plaque to front face and floral motifs elsewhere. Recent red brick structure added under eastern span.
Appraisal
This well-executed bridge is a fine example of the quality of craftsmanship employed in the construction of utilitarian structures, key to Victorian industrialization. It displays metalwork of technical interest, particularly the use of a steel box-truss form for the main span. The decorative details to the parapet panels and to the date plaque add artistic interest. This technology developed exponentially with the expansion of the railway system in the second half of the nineteenth century. The bridge is an important physical reminder of the early civil engineering and industrial heritage of Dublin. It was built as part of the line that carries the railway line from Amiens Street (now Connolly Station), and remains in use today for commuter and freight carriages.