Anna Livia Bridge

The Anna Livia Bridge, formerly known as the Chapelizod Bridge, is a road bridge that spans the River Liffey in Chapelizod, Dublin, Ireland. It connects the Chapelizod Road to the Lucan Road.

History

The bridge was originally built in the 1660s by William Dodson, an English engineer, architect, and surveyor. The cost of the original bridge was 195 guineas, 1 shilling, and 7 pence. The bridge we see today, crossing the main body of Liffey water in a sweep of four arches - two large central arches flanked on either side by a smaller arch, is substantially the same stone bridge.

Repairs and Renovations

Over the centuries, the bridge required repairs and even substantial rebuilding due to damage caused by Liffey floods and everyday use. In the 1980s, further repair works were carried out by Dublin Corporation. To provide a safe crossing for pedestrians on an ever busier bridge, Dublin City Council decided on a fusion of the old and the new - walkways, opened in 2011, now overhang the river on the outside of the bridge parapets.

Name

The bridge was renamed as Anna Livia Bridge in 1982 to mark the centenary of James Joyce's birth. Anna Livia is the name given to the personification of the River Liffey, and was a principal character in Joyce's Finnegans Wake.