URBAN PHOTOGRAPHS

Urban Expression And Depression By Infomatique

Bridge

THE SAMUEL BECKETT BRIDGE

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THE SAMUEL BECKETT BRIDGE – FREQUENTLY PHOTOGRAPHED

A tourist once asked me how to get to the “harp bridge” and it took me a few minutes to realise that it was the Samuel Beckett Bridge that she was seeking. Apparently her hotel was near the bridge and she was heading in the wrong direction as someone had assumed that she was trying to get to the Guinness brewery.

Samuel Beckett Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge in Dublin that joins Sir John Rogerson’s Quay on the south side of the River Liffey to Guild Street and North Wall Quay in the Docklands area.

Architect Santiago Calatrava was the lead designer of the bridge. He was assisted with the civil and structural aspects of the design by Roughan & O’Donovan consulting engineers.

This was the second bridge in the area designed by Calatrava, the first being the James Joyce Bridge, which is further upriver.

Constructed by a “Graham Hollandia Joint Venture”, the main span of the Samuel Beckett Bridge is supported by 31 cable stays from a doubly back-stayed single forward arc tubular tapered spar, with decking provided for four traffic and two pedestrian lanes. It is also capable of opening through an angle of 90 degrees allowing ships to pass through. This is achieved through a rotational mechanism housed in the base of the pylon.

The shape of the spar and its cables is said to evoke an image of a harp lying on its edge. (The harp being the national symbol for Ireland from as early as the thirteenth century).

VIDEO: WINTER LIGHTS AT THE SAMUEL BECKETT BRIDGE

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WINTER LIGHTS AT THE SAMUEL BECKETT BRIDGE – CHRISTMAS LIGHT SHOW CREATED BY LOCAL COMMUNITY

I used an iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Earlier this month Winter Lights returned to seventeen locations throughout Dublin city with new artwork commissioned for four of the seventeen displays but I did not get the opportunity to view any of them until the weekend before Christmas.

PROJECTION LOCATIONS:

City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin 2 (community created artworks)
Civic Offices, Wood Quay, Dublin 8 (community created artworks)
Covanta Dublin Waste to Energy Plant, Poolbeg, Dublin 4
The Custom House, North Dock, Dublin 1
The GPO, O’Connell Street, Dublin 1
The Hugh Lane Gallery, Parnell Square North, Dublin 1 (community created artworks)
The Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin 2
Smithfield Square, Dublin 7
Trinity College Dublin, College Green, Dublin 2
The Mater Hospital (community created artworks)

ILLUMINATED LOCATIONS

Millennium Bridge
O’Connell Street, Dublin 1
Parliament Street, Dublin 2
Samuel Beckett Bridge (community created artworks)
Capital Dock
The Jeanie Johnston Ship
CHQ Triumphal Arch

BOYNE COTTAGES

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BOYNE COTTAGES OFF BRIDGE STREET TRIM COUNTY MEATH

These cottages are at Bridge Street Bridge [Old Trim Bridge or Trim Bridge] and I noticed on Google Maps that this is the oldest bridge in Ireland. However I lived in Donegal when I was young and I remember my father showing me the oldest bridge in Ireland and according to the locals it was built by St. Patrick. The bridge in question is opposite ‘Gulladuff House’ on the grounds of Moville Boutique Hostel is reputed to be the oldest bridge in Ireland, dating back to the 6th Century.

I think that the bridge in Trim is the oldest unmodified bridge “still in use”.

[Update: According to a number of accounts Trim bridge crosses the River Boyne near the castle. It was built about 1330, and is regarded as the oldest unchanged medieval bridge in Ireland.]

https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/5121/1/Michael_Potterton_Vol-2_20140624131030.pdf

ROBERT EMMET BRIDGE

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HAROLD’S CROSS BRIDGE AND NEARBY – ROBERT EMMET BRIDGE

Connecting Harold’s Cross Road to Upper Clanbrassil Street.

Up until recently I had assumed that it was Lower Clanbrassil Street as it was the section nearest the Grand Canal but as it is the section furthest from the River Liffey it is Upper rather than Lower.

A single-arch bridge, built 1935-6, carrying road over the Grand Canal. It was originally named Clanbrassil Bridge but was rebuilt in 1935-36 and renamed in honour of the 1803 rebellion leader Robert Emmet.

The original canal bridge at this location was named for James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, and was constructed around 1790. The current structure was rebuilt in 1935-6, its design echoing the composition of the eighteenth century bridges on this stretch of the Grand Canal. It was renamed Robert Emmet Bridge to commemorate the member of the United Irishmen who led a failed rebellion against the British in the early nineteenth century. Emmet was captured in Harold’s Cross and executed in 1803. A limestone plaque and relief bust by Albert George Power and an inscription in Irish add artistic and historical interest.

AREAS OF DUBLIN: HAROLD’S CROSS
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