An architectural highlight is the Simon Beckett Bridge in Dublin’s Docklands. Close to the city centre and spanning the Liffey, the bridge stretches westward over the rooftops of the city. Already from the transfer from the airport to the city, I saw the bridge briefly, and had to look at it again more closely. During the Docklands tour of the local sightseeing bus, I got off at the stop “Spencer Hotel & Convention Centre Dublin” and had, until the next bus arrived, about half an hour to see the bridge in detail as well as to enjoy the morning sun. In Dublin sunshine is not a rarity, but you should take full advantage of it because usually afterward dark clouds with rain move over the Irish city.

Simon Beckett was an Irish writer and also a Nobel Prize winner who is very connected with Dublin, after all, he was born there in 1906. Later he attended Trinity College as a student of French and Italian. He spent most of his life in Paris, where he is buried. The bridge, also called Droichead Samuel Beckett in Gaelic, resembles a harp at an angle and is 120 metres long as well as 48 metres high. The harp is a well-known symbol of the Irish and is also depicted on the Irish euro coins.
Santiago Calatrava, the Spanish architect and civil engineer of the bridge, already designed and manufactured the James Joyce Bridge in Dublin, which was completed in 2003. The Simon Beckett Bridge was fabricated in Rotterdam and then transported to Dublin by ship. The opening of the bridge took place in December 2009.