Bridge over Canal at Grand Canal St

oceanclub

Compared to the 18th century bridges at Mount St and at Baggot St, the bridge over the Grand Canal at Grand Canal St is a pretty manky, relatively modern one. Does anyone know if there was original an older one there and if so what happened to it?

P.

Ant

Good observation. Here's my conjecture: there was a lot of fighting around that area during the Easter Rising as Bolands' Mill was a stronghold of the rebels and there was an army garrison stationed in Beggars Bush (just off Haddington Road). It's possible that the bridge was destroyed by artillery fire at this time.

Hopefully, somebody with more local historical knowledge can shed some light on this.

Mr Simpson

Is it this bridge you are talking about? At Pearse Street/Ringsend Road

P_1

It could be possible that Grand Canal Street wasn't in existence until fairly recently.

It does look like your bog standard 50's/60's bridge in fairness.

oceanclub

mmcn90 wrote: »

Is it this bridge you are talking about? At Pearse Street/Ringsend Road

Nope, this one, at Grand Canal St itself:



Grand Canal St is a pretty old street with lots of 19th century houses so I'm pretty sure an older bridge must have been there. Possibly, it's encased in the modern bridge.

P.

oceanclub

OK, it's actually mentioned, with no photo, on this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dublin_bridges_and_tunnels#Bridges_on_the_Grand_Canal

Macquay's Bridge Grand Canal Street - R815 Named after George Macquay, a director of the Grand Canal Company in 1791.

The fact it's named after one of the original directors makes me think that Macquay's Bridge was the original bridge there; the other older bridges were also all named after personnel of the company. So now I'm wondering was this old bridge demolished - and why - or is it buried within the current bridge.

P.

Tabnabs

Built to accommodate road widening and more traffic.

MAQUAY BRIDGE (Grand Canal)

Connection: Grand Canal Street

This is the first of the Grand Canal bridges, running along the southernmost end of the Grand Canal Basin between Treasury Holdings (formerly Boland’s Bakery) and the Grand Canal Hotel. In the time of Bacon’s map, there was an engine and carriage factory just down the street where the Emerald Cottages stand today. When the bridge was rebuilt and the road widened the balance beams of the lower gates were removed and winches substituted.

The bridge was named after the banker George Maquay (1758 - 1820), a director of the Grand Canal Company in the 1790's. Maquay (sometimes Macquay) was one of the members of the Ballast Board who orchestrated the sale of Pigeon House Harbour to the Admiralty. In 1819, he and Leland Crosthwaite commissioned surveyor Francis Giles to assist their engineer George Halpin in building the North Bull Wall. Maquay's son John Leland Maquay junior (1791-1868) was a founder of the Pakenham & Maquay bank of Florence.

‘On Wednesday evening, a man was perceived taking a parcel out of the Grand Canal, near Maquay Bridge, by two gentlemen of the attornies infantry, who seized him, and upon examining the parcel, found it to contain eight well executed steel pikes, carefully made up in hay’ – The Cumberland Pacquet, Tuesday, 14th August 1798

source

It's not the prettiest at all


Judging by this map, the original bridge was really narrow and unsuitable for the development of Dublin.

Paparazzo

Hidden Dublin, the radio slot that used to be on newstalk, did a good episode on the Grand Canal. I'll give it a listen when I get home, but I'm pretty sure Huband Bridge is the only bridge on the canal in Dublin that's in it's original state and never been widened.

oceanclub

Tabnabs wrote: »

"When the bridge was rebuilt and the road widened the balance beams of the lower gates were removed and winches substituted"

Thanks for that. Is there any indication when the bridge was rebuilt? It's a shame they couldn't have widened the original (were the other bridges such as the Baggot St one widened?) or, at least, built something that wasn't appallingly ugly.

P.

Tabnabs

oceanclub wrote: »

Thanks for that. Is there any indication when the bridge was rebuilt? It's a shame they couldn't have widened the original (were the other bridges such as the Baggot St one widened?) or, at least, built something that wasn't appallingly ugly.

P.

I couldn't find any reference to a date unfortunately. It may have come down to money available to get the job done as cheaply as possible, or else the engineer was just really crap at design :pac:

oceanclub

Another little piece of info I got courtesy of Waterways Ireland - the current bridge was built after the original was demolished in 1958. I'll keep hunting!

P.