By the 1880s , the Guinness Brewery at St. James’s Gate was the largest brewery in the world, covering sixty acres on the south bank of the Liffey. Consignments for export were placed on barges owned by Guinness at the company’s own wharf at Victoria Quay, beside Kingsbridge (now Heuston) Railway Station. The barges could carry up to sixty-eight tons each and brought export stout further down river to waiting ships. The brewery also has its own harbour on the Grand Canal, originally used to transport beer into the Midlands. Gradually road transport replaced the canal barges, and the harbour closed in the early 1970s.