Celebrating the Ha'penny Bridge a Dublin landmark at the heart of the city for 200 years.
One of the capital’s best known and best loved landmarks, the Ha'penny Bridge has been a river Liffey crossing since 1816. Known to generations of Dubliners as the Ha’penny Bridge, it began life as the Wellington Bridge and is now officially named the Liffey Bridge.
It's one of the best known and best loved landmarks in this old town.
Dr Mary Clark, City Archivist at Dublin City Council, explains the origins of the bridge. Designed by John Windsor, it was commissioned by the then Lord Mayor of Dublin, John Claudius Beresford, along with William Walsh. The two men owned the rights to operate a ferry across the Liffey, charging a ha’penny for each crossing. When the service failed to generate enough income to pay the ferryman, they proposed building a bridge instead. Dublin Corporation agreed, and a toll of one ha’penny was charged to cross it — a name that has endured ever since.
To mark the bicentenary, relatives of both the men who commissioned the bridge and its designer travelled to Dublin for the celebrations. Among them was David Windsor, a descendant of John Windsor and a himself a civil engineer. While familiar with the bridge’s iconic status, he had not previously realised his own family connection to its creation.
Dubliners also visited the bridge to wish it a happy birthday and to share their personal memories of one of the city’s most cherished structures.
It may be two centuries old but the ha'penny bridge is a remarkable feat of engineering and still carries up to 30,000 people a day across the Liffey.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 19 May 2016. The reporter is Sinéad Crowley.
