What's in a name?

Names, carefully thought out and officially stamped, are not bestowed on all bridges. Instead, a nearby landmark, geographical feature or place can, through common usage, supply the name of a bridge. There are many such bridges dotted around Dublin and littering the landscape of Ireland, some great feats of engineering and design, others full of yesteryear character, yet somehow lacking a well considered identity.

And when it comes to naming names, railway bridges - of which there are over 3,000 in Ireland - are particularly neglected. Thus, the bridge over the Liffey which carries the rail line from Heuston Station to under the Phoenix Park, is simply the Liffey Viaduct or the Liffey Railway Bridge.

A viaduct is a bridge which carries a road or a railway over a valley or low lying ground. Viaducts along with aqueducts were first engineered by the Romans. The name ‘Liffey’ is also of ancient provenance, though of uncertain origin. The Liffey Viaduct shares its name, in one form or another, with three other bridges which span the Liffey. Dublin’s beloved Ha’penny Bridge is, officially, also the Liffey Bridge; her least loved bridge - probably - the Loop Line, is known as the Liffey Viaduct too; and - arguably - her most romantically named bridge, the Anna Livia in Chapelizod, is named for James Joyce’s richly imagined personification of the Liffey.

Operators of railway networks, more intimate with railway bridges than most, simply give them a number. In the case of Liffey Viaduct: UB01