Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, it is a single-span structural steel design, 40 m (131 ft) long. The deck is supported from two outward angled arches, the silhouette of which is sometimes compared to the shape of an open book. The bridge was built by Irishenco Construction, using pre-fabricated steel sections from Harland and Wolff of Belfast.
The bridge is named for the famous Dublin author James Joyce, and was opened on 16 June 2003 (Bloomsday). Joyce's short story "The Dead" is set in Number 15 Usher's Island, the house facing the bridge on the south side.
In the spring of 1921, Paris bookseller Sylvia Beach boasted about her plans to publish a novel she deemed a masterpiece that would be "ranked among the classics in English literature".
On 2 February 1922, Beach published the first book edition of Ulysses, just in time for Joyce's 40th birthday.
