The Many Faces of the Ha'penny Bridge

If you are not from Ireland, you may have never heard of the Ha'penny bridge. It is one of the most recognisable landmarks in Dublin city, and in many ways it has become a symbol of the capital. It is a beautiful cast iron bridge that was originally built in 1816. Strangely enough though, "the Ha'penny Bridge" is not it's official name. It was originally called "The Wellington Bridge" but it's name was later changed to the Liffey Bridge, and that remain's it's official title to this day.

You're probably wondering then why it's called the ha'penny bridge?Before the Ha'penny Bridge was built, crossing at this point was done by ferry. The ferry service of the time was operated by one William Walsh. The ferries were in such a bad condition that Walsh was told to either fix them or build a bridge. He chose the latter option and was granted the right to extract a ha'penny toll from anyone crossing it for 100 years. Even though the toll was long since dropped, it still has the nickname and in fact most people are probably unaware that "the Ha'penny Bridge" is not the actual name of the bridge.

Over the years I've taken dozens if not hundreds of photos of this bridge. I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Recently, I've been going through my archives and it struck me as to how many different shots of the bridge that I actually had. So, here is a short selection of the Dublin icon over the last few years, through, winters, summer spring, and autumn!