Homeland Art

Up to 1816, the year the Ha’penny Bridge was erected, no other bridge existed between Essex (Grattan or Capel Street) Bridge and Carlisle (O’Connell) Bridge.
There was a ferry from the Bagnio Slip (at the bottom of Fownes Street) operated by William Walsh. He owned seven old ferries and was under pressure from Dublin Corporation to repair them or replace them. He did not act on that idea, preferring instead to build a bridge. His proposal to Dublin Corporation was adopted and he was allowed to charge a halfpenny toll over a hundred year lease..

Designed by John Windsor and costing £3,894.7s.11½d., the bridge was manufactured in Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, the first centre of iron casting in Britain. Now one of the oldest cast-iron bridges in the world it was originally named Wellington Bridge, after the Dublin born Duke who had trounced Napoleon. Offically called the Liffey Bridge, it is more commonly known as the Halfpenny or Ha’penny Bridge.

The bridge was the only pedestrian bridge on the Liffey until the new Millenium bridge opened in 2000. The Ha’penny bridge was closed in 2001 for major repair. It was reopened 2003 with its original paint colour restored and changes made at the ends to allow standing room for pedestrians before crossing the road.

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