One of the first cast iron bridges in the World

The Ha’penny Bridge was originally named ‘The Wellington Bridge’ after The Duke of Wellington. It was then known as  ‘The Penny Ha’penny Bridge’, however ‘the Liffey Bridge’ remains its official name to this day even though it is still commonly called ‘the Ha’penny Bridge’ – confused yet? Before it was built William Nash operated 7 ferries operated across the river and being in bad condition Nash was informed that he had to either fix them or build a bridge. He chose the latter option and was granted the right to extract a half-a-penny toll from anyone who used it and had the contract for 100 years using turnstiles at each end. One of the conditions of construction was that, if the citizens of Dublin found the bridge and toll to be ‘objectionable’ it was to be removed after the 1^st year at no cost to the city. The toll was increased for a time to a penny ha’penny (one and a half pence), but this was eventually dropped in 1919. When it was built in 1816, it was one of the first cast-iron bridges in the world.