Possibly known as the Bridge of Dubhghall, this basic wooden structure was maintained and rebuilt over several centuries (from early Medieval to Viking to Norman times).

[3] This collapsed however in the late 14th century and in 1428, the Dominicans of Ostmantown Friary built the first masonry bridge in Dublin on the same spot.

In 1312, Geoffrey de Morton, Mayor of Dublin 1302–3, was reprimanded for building a house without permission on the bridge.

It was he who began building the towers, which were completed by his son-in-law John de Grauntsete, who later built St. Mary's Chapel on the Bridge.

For much of its 390-year life span, The Bridge carried all pedestrian, livestock and horse-drawn traffic across the river, and (as late as 1762) its tolls and chapel were still in use.