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Structures
There are two kinds of bridge in Ireland: those built so that people would remember them, and those that nobody notices at all. Both are necessary, and each has its own story.
This is not a complete list. It is a selection of structures for which openly licensed photographs are available.
The Samuel Beckett Bridge, Dublin. Photograph: DXR (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
A bridge exists to cross something: a river, a valley, a road or a railway. But the crossing alone is not enough. The bridge has to stand up to local conditions, it has to carry the traffic that passes over it, and it has to belong to the landscape.
That is why one view of a bridge looks so different from another. It is not a neglect of the engineering — it is the result of it.
A bridge can be a tool and a place at the same time. It is rare for one of those to be necessary without the other.
It is the most striking bridge built in the city in recent times, and it stands between the port and the city centre. Its shape is like a harp, or a single tree set to one side, and it has been photographed from every angle.
It is a bridge that carries urban traffic and pedestrians alike, and it belongs to a wider story about the transformation of the area around the port.
This footbridge is one of the most familiar landmarks in the city. It was built to carry people across the river, and it is still used by pedestrians only.
It is worth seeing as something that belongs to the story of the river: it is not a motorway and it would not suit traffic, but it is part of the city's system of crossings.
This structure carries the railway line over the River Boyne, and it is among the best known structures in the area. Its raised towers are its principal aesthetic feature.
When you see a bridge like this, you see the way engineering had to reconcile the water and the railway with one another.
There are hundreds of small, unnamed bridges across the motorway network. They are there so that other roads can pass over the motorway without stopping.
This is the commonest kind of bridge in the country, and it is worth recognising as part of the system.
You do not need to be an engineer to see what makes a bridge suitable. It comes down to three questions.
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