18 miles from Dublin.
This bridge is Burgh Bridge but is known locally as Cock Bridge.
The Grand Canal
The Grand Canal was built in the Georgian Period of Irish history and construction started circa 1756 and completed circa 1803. Dublin was linked to the Shannon, Ireland’s longest river.
The Grand Canal was once a vital artery of trade and commerce. Barges carried grain, sugar-beat, salt, turf, coal, Guinness and people. It carried water too and one of the original purposes of the Grand Canal was to provide a reliable source of pure water for the city and Arthur Guinness’s Brewery at James’s Gate where there was a harbour, a city basin, and the Canal terminus. The barrels of stout arrived in far better condition by Canal than by horse-drawn carts on dirt tracks! In 1960 the last cargo boat that travelled on the Grand Canal was laden with kegs of Guinness.
Today the Grand Canal forms a 130 km linear park through Ireland. It provides ideal cruising for the novice or those who just want to take it easy. It also provides excellent coarse fishing for the angler. The Grand Canal Towpath is a now a Way-marked Walking Route, ideal for the long-distance walker.
Route
The Grand Canal begins in Grand Canal at the River Liffey and continues through to the River Shannon. From Suir Road Bridge, the lock numbering starts again at 1 as the canal heads west through the suburbs of Dublin West and into Kildare. At Sallins the Naas/Corbally branch diverts southwards, while the Grand Canal continues west passing Caragh, Prosperous and Robertstown, its highest point. Just outside Sallins, the canal passes over the River Liffey at the Leinster Aqueduct. Just east of Robertstown is the location where the Blackwood Feeder used to join the canal, whilst just to the west can be found the busiest junction on the canal where the Old Barrow Line, Milltown Feeder and the entrances to the Athy & Barrow Navigation meet. Further west, the canal passes Edenderry, Tullamore, Rahan and Pollagh before it reaches the Shannon at Shannon Harbour in County Offaly. In total the main line of the canal is 131km with 43 locks, five of which are double locks.
Ownership
Until 1950 the Grand Canal Company had ownership of the canal when the Transport Act 1950 transferred the canal to Córas Iompair Éireann. This situation continued until the Canals Act, 1986 gave it to the Office of Public Works. Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, a new all-Ireland body called Waterways Ireland was established in 1999 and assumed responsibility for most inland navigable waterways including the Grand Canal.
Grand Canal Way, walking trail
The Grand Canal Way (Bealach na Canálach Móire) is a 117km long-distance that follows the towpath of the canal from Lucan Bridge, near Adamstown, to Shannon Harbour. It is typically completed in five days. It is designated as a National Waymarked Trail by the National Trails Office of the Irish Sports Council and is managed by Waterways Ireland. At Robertstown, the Grand Canal Way intersects with the Barrow Way, which follows the Barrow Line extension to the canal to Athy for part of its route. There is also an 8.5km long greenway between the 3rd Lock at Inchicore and the 12th Lock at Lucan, which opened in June 2010.
Construction
The idea of connecting Dublin to the Shannon was proposed as early as 1715, and in 1757 the Irish Parliament granted Thomas Omer £20,000 to start construction of a canal. By 1759 he reported that 3km in the Bog of Allen and 13km of the canal from the River Liffey near Sallins towards Dublin was complete. By 1763 he had completed 3 locks and 6 bridges towards Dublin and was concentrating on establishing a water supply from the Morrell River near Sallins. At this point, the Corporation of Dunlin realised that the canal could be used to improve the water supply to the city, and put up the money to complete the canal into the city. But when the canal was filled, the banks gave way and the city didn't obtain its water. By 1768, £77,000 had been spent on the project and little more was forthcoming. In 1772 the Grand Canal Company was established by a group of noblemen and merchants, including public subscription, to ensure the future of the canal and to tackle the biggest barrier to the canal, the Bog of Allen. This was a new venture for canals. The company invited John Smeaton and his assistant William Jessop to Ireland for two weeks to advise them. Smeaton made a recommendation to skirt round the bog but to build the canal at the full height, in contrast to Omer's efforts which attempted to drain parts of the bog and build at a lower level. This was to prove an expensive mistake, although he also advised reducing the generous locks that Omer had built (42m x 6m to 18m x 4m, which would bring about considerable savings in the total cost of the canal.
The canal from Sallins was finally opened to traffic in 1779 and a twice-weekly passenger service from Sallins to Dublin started in 1780. The canal was extended to Robertstown in 1784, including the Leinster Aqueduct across the Liffey, constructed by Richards Evans and to a junction with the River Barrow at Athy by 1791. The circular line through Dublin from Portobello to Ringsend, where large docks adjacent to the Liffey were constructed, was started in 1790 and opened in 1796. The company had by then turned its attention to completing the link with the Shannon. Getting across the Bog of Allen took more than five years of struggle under the guidance of Jessop, who attempted to use walls of clay to support the walls of the canal. Though the canal was opened to Daingean (then Philipstown) in 1797, serious breaches occurred and Jessop was forced to abandon this method. The continuation to the Shannon then continued under the leadership of John Killaly, who succeeded in crossing another bog by carrying out drainage works for several years before construction. The work was substantially completed in 1803, but because of leakages and a dry summer, the official opening had to be delayed until April 1804. The canal had taken 47 years to build, advancing at a rate of 7.7cm per day.
The whole work had cost in the region of £877,000 and it was some years before it began to make a profit, although regular dividends had been paid to shareholders. Trade increased from 100,000 tons in 1800 to double that in 1810. Revenues from passenger boats also increased to £90,000 by that date. (The novel The Kellys and the O'Kellys (1848) by Anthony Trollope includes a description of a tedious journey by passenger flyboat from Portobello to Ballinasloe.) But the long saga had prompted a rival venture, the Royal Canal, which started construction in 1790 and was finally opened in 1817 after the government had stepped in to resolve disputes between the two companies.
The first steamer to traverse the canal from Dublin to Limerick was the Shannon Steam Navigation Company's wood paddle steamer Mountaineer, which received the Canal Company's permission to proceed in October 1826. The second was the Dublin and Wexford Steam Company's iron paddle steamer Marchioness Wellesley, which arrived in Limerick on 2 February 1827.
Apart from the breaches during construction, there were breaches on a branch of the canal in 1833, due to which one child drowned, and another in 1846. In 1855 the main canal breached at the same location as in 1797. In 1916 again 300 yards of canal was displaced. The last breach was on 15 January 1989, between the Blundell Aqueduct and Downshire bridge. 18 miles of canal drained into the surroundings.