Farmleigh Bridge


The Farmleigh Bridge, also known as the Silver Bridge, Guinness Bridge or Strawberry Beds Bridge, is a disused bridge spanning the River Liffey and the Lower Lucan Road in Dublin, Ireland.
Farmleigh Bridge is a single-span cast iron box truss bridge. It is about long and is supported by two stone and masonry supports faced with cut limestone blocks, and embellished with buttresses and round-headed arches. Probably built by the engineering department of the Guinness Brewery, it was built in the 1870s to carry water pipes and electricity lines from the mill race turbine to the nearby Farmleigh House and the clock tower, by Edward Cecil Guinness who had bought the estate in 1872. There were ornate gates at either end of the bridge and a tunnel entrance where it ended abruptly in the side of a hill. The pipes and cables were covered by a deck for pedestrian use. Privately built by the Guinness family, it was also used by staff who lived on the south side of the river as a short-cut to the grand house.
The bridge is long disused, with no remaining base or platform to carry traffic. Though the elaborate stone gateway remains, the tunnel is no longer accessible and has been collapsed.
As of late 2015, campaigners had initiated a petition for the bridge to be restored and used as part of a Liffey greenway plan. However, as of mid-2016, no funding had been allocated by Fingal County Council to renovation of the bridge.