Lagan Railway Bridge
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Lagan Railway Bridge is a railway and pedestrian bridge across the
River Lagan The River Lagan (; Ulster Scots: ''Lagan Wattèr'') is a major river in Northern Ireland which runs 53.5 miles (86 km) from the Slieve Croob mountain in County Down to Belfast where it enters Belfast Lough, an inlet of the Irish Sea. The ...
in
Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
, slightly north of
Belfast Central railway station Belfast Lanyon Place (formerly Belfast Central, and known colloquially as Central Station) is a railway station serving the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Located on Bridge Street in the Laganside area of central Belfast, it is one of four ...
. The next bridge upstream is the Albert Bridge, whilst the next downstream is Queen's Bridge.


Original bridge

From 1875 to 1965, a more rudimentary structure existed in the same location. Built by the Belfast Central Railway as part of its line which linked the Great Northern Railway and the
Belfast and County Down Railway The Belfast and County Down Railway (BCDR) was an Irish gauge () railway in Ireland (later Northern Ireland) linking Belfast with County Down. It was built in the 19th century and absorbed into the Ulster Transport Authority in 1948. All but th ...
, it was a single track eight-span wooden bridge. Heavier locomotives were banned from crossing it, and by the time it was closed by the
Ulster Transport Authority The Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) ran rail and bus transport in Northern Ireland from 1948 until 1966. Formation and consolidation The UTA was formed by the Transport Act 1948, which merged the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board (NIRTB ...
in 1965, it had earned the nickname, ''''The Lagan Shaky Bridge''.'' It was subsequently demolished shortly after closure.


Current bridge

The current structure was opened by
Northern Ireland Railways NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) ( ga, Iarnród Thuaisceart Éireann); and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways (UTR), is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose parent ...
in 1976 as part of the work to reopen the Belfast Central Railway line to passenger traffic. It is double track and supported by four piers. It has six spans (including one over Laganbank Road and is long. Immediately to the north of the bridge is Lagan Junction, where the Bangor line and
Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight Roll-on/ro ...
/
Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
lines diverge at a
level junction A level junction (or in the United Kingdom a flat crossing) is a railway junction that has a track configuration in which merging or crossing railroad lines provide track connections with each other that require trains to cross over in front of ...
, with the latter veering to the left and crossing the Lagan again over the Dargan Bridge. On the downstream side of the bridge is a pedestrian walkway, linking Laganbank Road, which the railway part of the bridge crosses and Laganview Court. File:The Lagan railway bridge, Belfast - geograph.org.uk - 962522.jpg, A train crossing the bridge. File:Approaching Belfast Central - geograph.org.uk - 726685.jpg, The bridge as seen from East Bridge Street.


See also

*
List of bridges over the River Lagan The following is a list of bridges over the River Lagan in Northern Ireland listed going upstream from Belfast Lough Belfast Lough is a large, intertidal sea inlet on the east coast of Northern Ireland. At its head is the city and port of B ...


References

{{reflist Railway bridges in Northern Ireland Buildings and structures in Belfast Bridges in Northern Ireland