A bridge named after a princess marks its 150th birthday
Liam Kenny
Named after a princess and built by the ancestor of a celebrated poet, Clane’s Alexandra Bridge this year marks its 150th anniversary. Hurrying motorists might not notice the plaque “Alexandra Bridge, 1864” as they drive between the parapets bridging the Liffey on the Naas side of Clane. And so well does Alexandra Bridge look that it is hard to credit that it has coped with the pounding of increasingly heavy traffic for a century-and-a-half. For a full appreciation of its majesty – an appropriate adjective surely for a bridge with a royal title – a short walk down the nature trail on the Clane side of the bridge will reap rewards. There, resplendent in its full profile, the grace of its three elegant arches show how its 19th century engineers successfully combined form with function.
Local historian Brendan Cullen writing in “Coiseanna”, the popular journal of the Clane Local History Group, has documented the history of Alexandra Bridge. He writes of how its construction began in early 1864 under the supervision of the Kildare County Surveyor, John Yeats – a Sligo man and grand-uncle of the poet W. B. Yeats. An examination of the bridge suggests that parts of an earlier bridge were included in the 1864 construction. Perhaps because of the basis provided by the earlier structure the build moved along very swiftly and the bridge was completed by November of 1864. However, the haste led to some cosmetic imperfections which saw John Yeats being caught up in a dispute between the contractor and the Kildare Grand Jury (forerunner of the County Council) who were paying for the bridge at a cost of £2,100.
In March 1865 John Yeats reported to the Grand Jury that the new bridge had been completed the previous year but not to his complete satisfaction. One of the arches was defective in appearance when the timber scaffolding used to support the arch during construction was removed. The defect did not affect the safety of the bridge but the Grand Jury held Yeats responsible for the flaw and wanted to dismiss him from the job. However Yeats proposed that independent surveyors be enlisted to give a second opinion on the completion of the bridge. As a result a triumvirate of top figures in the construction profession in the 19th century examined and reported on Alexandra Bridge. The trio was comprised of James Bell, a Dublin surveyor, Henry Brett, the Wicklow County Surveyor, and Dublin Architect Thomas Drew. The latter was associated with such prestigious projects as the restoration of St Brigid’s Cathedral in Kildare and the internal rearrangement of St David’s church in Naas.
The outcome was a report that may not have flattered Alexandra Bridge in terms of her appearance but gave a reassuring verdict on her structural stability. James Bell reported that although the bridge was not “a very handsome one” and that there had been a small amount of settlement at the centre of one of the arches it would take only minor work to correct the defect. The arch was repaired, and although the timber supports were left in place for some time, the integrity of the construction was perfect and proved well able to take not only the traffic of the day but the much heavier loadings of later years.
There was some disruption to traffic on the Clane-Naas route while the bridge job was underway. The Freeman’s Journal reported that on 21 July 1864 a train full of invited parents and guests to the end of term celebrations in Clongowes Wood College were met at Sallins rail station by numerous horses-and-carriages which were to transport them to the College. However, the paper reported that “Owing to the rebuilding of the bridge across the Liffey, near Clane, the carriages had to go round by Millicent”.
The question of how “Alexandra Bridge” came to be named after the Danish born princess is most likely answered by the fact that the year before it’s completion, Alexandra had married Albert Edward, the prince of Wales, and heir to the British throne. The members of the Grand Jury who were drawn from the ranks of the county aristocracy were no doubt motivated to demonstrate their loyalty to the monarchy by naming the bridge after its newest royal member.
Alexandra and Edward visited Ireland on a number of occasions over the following forty years – and it would be nice to be able to say that she crossed the bridge named in her honour. And the fact that Kildare locations featured on their itineraries – Maynooth College in 1868 and 1903 and Punchestown in 1904 – might tempt such a neat conclusion. Alas, there is no evidence that royalty ever set foot on the bridge in Clane and any speculation – however romantic – that Alexandra may have come face to face with her structural namesake has no basis in fact.
On the subject of birthday bridges in mid-Kildare another anniversary is being marked at Digby Bridge, the well-known bridge across the canal where county roads from Clane, Caragh, Prosperous and Naas converge. A plaque on the bridge is inscribed with the year 1794 indicating its rebuilding 220 years ago. It bears the name of Simon Digby of near-by Landenstown who was a prominent political figure and a director of the Grand Canal Company. He was High Sheriff of County Kildare in 1756 and was a member of the Duke of Leinster’s Liberal Party in the Irish parliament. Indeed the record of the College Green parliament indicates that in 1795 – the year after his name went up on the canal bridge – he supported the case for full freedom for the practice of the Catholic Church in Ireland. This nugget provides a neat link with yet another anniversary in the Clane area – this time combining the structural and the spiritual. This year marks the 130th anniversary of the completion of the Catholic parish church in Clane and its dedication to St Patrick and St Brigid. The dedication in 1884 was presided over by the James Lynch, Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin, who had a cosmopolitan clerical career having been rector of the Irish College in Paris earlier in the century. Thank you to Brendan Cullen of the Clane Local History Group for sharing his research on the sesquicentenary of Alexandra Bridge. Leinster Leader 1 April 2014, Looking Back Series no: 375.
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