SHERIFF STREET LIFTING BRIDGE – I USED A SIGMA 14mm WIDE-ANGLE LENS
As I used a wide-angle lens you will notice dome distortion you may also notice lens flare which I have been unable to control.
The wonderful thing about Dublin is that everything has a history or a background story but the problem is that everyone will tell you a different story.
When I first photographed this bridge, many years ago, a self appointed local historian told me that the lifting bridge was built by Earl Spencer the paternal grandfather of Diana Spencer. The problem with such stories is that the facts may be “alternative” but they are often true so they cannot be easily dismissed. I did, however, have some problems with the story for the following reasons.
[1] Spencer Dock was originally known as the Royal Canal Docks [2] Diana’s Grand Father or his father had no connection with Ireland. [3] The bridge appears to have an electric motor dating from the 1940s or 1950s
Anyway I decided to check a history of the docklands published by Turtle Bunbury [by the way the book features one of my photographs] and I came across the following: “The new dock was a work of ‘entirely private enterprise’ and cost £58,000. On the beautiful afternoon of 15th April 1873, (Sir) Ralph Cusack, Chairman of the MGWR, opened the new dock and formally named it Spencer after the Lord Lieutenant, Earl Spencer, great-great grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales.”
So there was some basis to the local historian’s claim however the bridge associated with the development was at the time described as “an ingenious hydraulic bridge” and it was the work of the railway’s engineer Mr Price. The bridge in my photographs does not really match the description above.
The available information is confusing. The bridge in my photographs appears to be referred to as the Sheriff Street Lifting Bridge but also as the Sheriff Street Spencer Drawbridge but it was built in 1941 as a replacement for an older swivel bridge dating from 1873.
Just before I published my original photographs I came across this “on 17 October 1941 the Irish Times reported on the opening of the new Sheriff Street drawbridge, which had cost £18,000; it was a structure unique of its kind in these islands”.
The Spencer Dock Bridge opened on Bloomsday, June 16th 2009.
This bridge for the Luas Red Line Tram Service and which crosses the Royal Canal is almost as wide as it is long. The reason for it being so wide that it needed to carry two traffic lanes as well as a pair of cycle tracks and curved walkways at its edges, which are separated from the tram tracks and traffic lanes by very strong tubular steel safety rails.
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).
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
Today I experimented with the iPhone XR and Halide Mark II a new camera app by Lux Optics. At this stage I am giving serious consideration to purchasing the new iPhone 12 Pro Max.
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