THE BRIDGE THAT LOOKS LIKE A HARP – SAMUEL BECKETT BRIDGE
One day I was standing at the tram stop at Jervis and I overheard a visitor asking people how to get to the Harp Bridge and all thought that she was trying to get to Guinness but I suspected that she may have been based in a hotel near the Samuel Beckett bridge and this proved to be the case … she could not remember the name of the hotel but knew that it was near a bridge that looked like a harp.
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).
The steel structure of the bridge was constructed in Rotterdam by Hollandia, a Dutch company also responsible for the steel fabrication of the London Eye. The steel span of the bridge was transferred from the Hollandia wharf in Krimpen aan den IJssel on 3 May 2009, with support from specialist transport company ALE Heavylift.
The bridge, which cost €60 million, is named for Irish writer Samuel Beckett. It was officially opened to pedestrians on 10 December 2009 and to road traffic at 7 am the following day.
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THE JAMES JOYCE BRIDGE IN DUBLIN – THE FIRST EDITION OF ULYSSES WAS PUBLISHED 2 FEBRUARY 1922
The James Joyce Bridge is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland, joining the south quays to Blackhall Place on the north side.
Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, it is a single-span structural steel design, 40 m (131 ft) long. The deck is supported from two outward angled arches, the silhouette of which is sometimes compared to the shape of an open book.
The bridge was built by Irishenco Construction, using pre-fabricated steel sections from Harland and Wolff of Belfast.
The bridge is named for the famous Dublin author James Joyce, and was opened on 16 June 2003 (Bloomsday). Joyce’s short story “The Dead” is set in Number 15 Usher’s Island, the house facing the bridge on the south side.
In the spring of 1921, Paris bookseller Sylvia Beach boasted about her plans to publish a novel she deemed a masterpiece that would be “ranked among the classics in English literature”.
On 2 February 1922, Beach published the first book edition of Ulysses, just in time for Joyce’s 40th birthday.
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