History

In the 1870’s Dublin bridges were quite a hot topic! Though greatly impoverished in places, the city was expanding and traffic congestion was an everyday problem. Plans were afoot for the remodelling of Essex (now Grattan) Bridge, the widening of the city’s most easterly bridge, Carlisle (now O’Connell) Bridge, was much talked about and the clamour for a brand new bridge near the Customs House was growing louder.

How tax monies should be spent when it came to these bridge projects greatly excited Dubliners, whereas railway bridges were built by the railway companies, leaving the pockets of taxpayers quite untouched.

Two proposals emerged in the 1860s for a railway bridge spanning the Liffey from behind Kingsbridge (now Heuston) Station. The first, The Dublin Trunk Connecting Railway Bill, in extending the Dublin and Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) Railway to Cabra envisaged an eight arch structure. Each arch was to be 30 feet in span and 8 feet high. The second, The Dublin Grand Junction Railway Bill, proposed an alternative viaduct of some 170 feet. Collaboration between the railway companies brought about the wrought iron viaduct we see today. A tunnel, running for 692 metres under the Phoenix Park, completed the connection between Kingsbridge, Cabra, Amiens Street and the North Wall.

The bridge and tunnel are recorded as completed in 1872 and in use by 1877 by passenger trains en route to the North Wall Railway Station, which was conveniently located for onward travel by sea to England and beyond. The Liffey Viaduct earned its place in the city’s revolutionary history too. On the evening of Easter Sunday, 1916, when the Rising broke out in Dublin, British troops were transferred from the Curragh camp across the bridge and onwards to take control of the river bank at the North Wall. And during the Emergency in Ireland, covering the years of World War ll, food supplies were taken by train into the tunnel for storage.

The Liffey Viaduct is not typical of railway bridges in Ireland. Most are masonry, just 1% being of iron on the underside and overside. Not having traffic other than rail pass under or over, the bridge has never suffered a strike and subsequent rebuild or repair. It is the original Liffey Viaduct.