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06 Sep 2012
Decent images of what the new bridge currently under construction at Marlborough Street will actually look like seem oddly hard to come by. This is the best I can find, showing the bridge with the Luas crossing it. The bridge will be open only to pedestrians and public transport, but it's main purpose is to facilitate the long overdue joining of the Luas Red and Green lines. It's not a terribly exciting design, but it has a clean simplicity, and seeing the Luas cross the liffey so many years after the old trams stopped crossing it, will be wonderful. Of course still no decision has been made on what the bridge will be called.
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17 Aug 2012
I've argued before that, with a new Liffey bridge under construction, I think it's about time we named one after a woman finally. And with the recent passing of the much-loved Maeve Binchy, and the fact that all of the last few bridges have been named after writers (Joyce, Beckett, O'Casey) naming the new bridge after her would seem to be an obvious - and I suspect popular - idea. I'll put my hand up and say I don't think I've ever read any of her books - though I have often read her journalism - but she is one of our most successful writers ever, and is undeniably popular. And she always seemed like a lovely woman and was of course a Dubliner. That would seem to tick all the boxes. It also has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? The "Binchy Bridge". Alliteration already works well with the Beckett Bridge and Butt Bridge (why isn't "Butt Bridge" more of a gay joke? We're missing a trick there). In fact, let's only call bridges after 'B' people from now on....
Anyway, if the Binchy Bridge is in your circle of friends and you can picture a lilac bus driving across it (there the only two I can think of off the top of my head and I'm resisiting the urge to Google) you can add your voice to the petition at this website.
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03 Aug 2012
I came back from my holiday to see the new bridge - only metres from O'Connell Bridge from which I took this snap - is reaching the "spanning" stage. It won't be carrying private traffic, only pedestrians, busses, and eventually the new LUAS "link" which finally got the go ahead from An Bórd Pleanála this morning.
I've mentioned before that I think it's abvout time that one of the Liffey bridges was named after a woman, and seeing as the last few bridges have all been named after writers, I think naming it after Maeve Binchy is a pretty good idea. I've heard it suggested a few times since her death on Monday evening. I have to admit that I've never read one of her books (though I have read articles and short stories in newspapers over the years) but she was hugely popular and always struck me as a lovely woman when she appeared on radio and TV. And it's clear from the outpouring of affection since Monday that she was enormously loved. And it certainly doesn't hurt that "the Binchy Bridge" has a nice ring to it!
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28 Jun 2012
Dubliner's will already know that we're getting another new bridge (It's been a great few years for bridge geeks in this town), this one only yards from O'Connell Bridge itself, and willl be carrying the LUAS and other public transport. I haven't posted much about it yet even though it's also only yards from my place because at this stage the construction is at the unexciting pile-driving stage and I don't want to bore you all with my bridge geekery. I'll wait till we get to a more picture-friendly phase of the construction.
Meanwhile, the Irish Times letters page has a running thread of people suggesting names for the new bridge - mostly naming it after the great and the good - and they have run the gamut from sportsmen to scientists to (as usual) writers. But so far, unless I missed it, no one has suggested a woman.
Currently there are seventeen bridges between the East Link and Heuston, and all seventeen are named after men. Not one of them is named after a woman.
If you go a little further out there's the Anna Livia Bridge in Chapelizod, but I don't count a poetic 'female' personification of the river Liffey as an actual woman. And the bridge at Island Bridge was previously called Sarah's Bridge after Sarah, Countess of Westmoreland, wife of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland who laid the first stone of the original bridge in 1791. However the brdge we have there now was renamed Island Bridge after independence.
Now I'm not one for advocating gender quotas for the naming of bridges, and of course in times gone by it was much more difficult for a woman to leave a historically significant mark on the city, but when you have seventeen bridges (twenty three, if you go out as far as Lucan) and every single one is named after a man (bar the couple named after landmarks), well, it begins to seem deliberately insulting.
So I say when it comes to naming the new bridge over the Liffey, let's name it after a great Irish woman.
"Artivist" Will St Leger feels similarly about the representation of women among the statues in the city centre, and yesterday morning he tried to restore a semblance of balance by adding a new female statue to the city's statuary. She didn't last too long unfortunately.
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05 Jul 2011
China, already home to seven of the world's longest bridges (including the longest at 102 miles which runs over land and water near Shanghai) has just opened the world's longest sea bridge linking the city of Qingdao with the suburb of Huangdao, spanning the wide blue waters of Jiaozhou Bay.
The massive structure is properly awesome.
(via The Telegraph)
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16 Jul 2010
The Pearl River Necklace Bridge (*snigger*) is a concept bridge to connect Hong Kong with mainland China where drivers drive on the other side of the road. The bridge would seamlessly put drivers on the correct side of the road, while at the same time visually reinforcing the change for drivers. There are currently bridges that achieve the same outcome, but without the simplicity of this bridge or making it so clear to drivers what's happening.
More pics and info HERE.
(thanks Tag)
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25 Jun 2010
A farmer in the US built a bridge (that reminds me of old school computer games) so that his goats can get from one fenced in paddock to another on their own.
(via unique daily)
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22 May 2010
Authorities in the Russian city of Volograd have closed a 7km bridge over the river Volga after a "fluctuation in the construction was detected". Detected? Helen Keller could have detected this fluctuation.
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21 Apr 2010
If anyone comes across the finished product, let me know.
(thanks Will)
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30 Mar 2010
These photographs of 50 amazing bridges from around the world, from ancient to madern, is pure bridge porn - and a fantasy holiday for me. What's striking is how many of the most incredible modern bridges are in China.
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