2009: The Grand Debut of a Harp-Like Bridge in Dublin

December 10, 2009

A cable-stayed swing bridge in Dublin, the capital city of the Republic of Ireland, was formally opened to pedestrians. Emer Costello (born in 1962), the lord mayor of Dublin, officiated at these inaugural festivities. The bridge was first opened to motor vehicle traffic the next morning. This 403.5-foot (123-meter)-long structure crosses the River Liffey and connects Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, a street and wharf, on the south bank with North Wall Quay (another wharf) and Guild Street on the north bank. The bridge was named after the renowned Dublin-born writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989).

Construction on Samuel Beckett Bridge began on April 30, 2007. The lead designer for this project was Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava (born in 1951). A key feature of the bridge involves how both a curved steel pylon and a total of 25 cables have been combined to resemble a harp. (This instrument has long been used as one of Ireland’s national symbols.) In 2010, the organization Engineers Ireland named Samuel Beckett Bridge the country’s Engineering Project of the Year.

Photo Credit: Giuseppe Milo (https://500px.com/p/pixael?view=photos) – licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

For more information on Samuel Beckett Bridge, please check out http://www.bridgesofdublin.ie/bridges/samuel-beckett-bridge#skip-to-content