O'Donovan Rossa Bridge () is a road bridge spanning the

River Liffey The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland, which joins Winetavern Street to Chancery Place (at the

Four Courts The Four Courts () is Ireland's most prominent courts building, located on Inns Quay in Dublin. The Four Courts is the principal seat of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the Dublin Circuit Court. Until 2010 the build ...

) and the north quays.

History

1684 bridge

Replacing a short-lived wooden structure, the original masonry

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

on this site was built in 1684 as a five-span simple arch bridge, and named ''Ormonde Bridge''. The construction was overseen by William Robinson. Between 1752 and 1761, George Semple and his brother John Semple I were consulted on the design and maintenance of the bridge and the possible construction of a new bridge. In December 1802 this bridge was swept away during a severe storm which also damaged Ringsend Bridge and Lucan Bridge.

1813 bridge

In 1813 construction started on a replacement bridge – the current structure – a little further west to the designs of James Savage and was opened in 1816. It consists of three elliptical arch spans in

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, with sculptured heads, similar to those on O'Connell Bridge, on the keystones. The heads represent ''Plenty'', the ''Liffey'', and ''Industry'' on one side, with ''Commerce'', ''Hibernia'' and ''Peace'' on the other. The balustrades are of cast iron. Opened as ''Richmond Bridge'' (named for Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond,

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the K ...

), it was renamed in 1923 for

Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa (; 4 September 1831 (baptised) – 29 June 1915)Con O'Callaghan Reenascreena Community Online (dead link archived at archive.org, 29 September 2014) was an Irish Fenian leader who was one of the leading members of t ...

by the fledgling Free State.

References

{{Authority control Bridges in Dublin (city) Bridges completed in 1816 1816 establishments in Ireland