Designed by John Chaloner Smith (engineer to the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway), the bridge was built between 1889 and 1891.

[3] During original planning and construction (in the late 19th century) the project was subject to much opposition and controversy,[4] because the structure blocks the view down river to The Custom House.

However, the bridge was deemed necessary as a rail link between north and south Dublin, and to facilitate the movement of transatlantic mail coming from Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) and Queenstown (Cobh).

[3] 100 years later, the visage of the bridge remains the subject of some debate,[5] and has been described by historian Richard Killeen as "one of the city's true eyesores".

[9] A prominent feature in the city landscape since 1891, the Loopline Bridge appears in one of the most famous literary works associated with Dublin: A skiff, a crumpled throwaway, Elijah is coming, rode lightly down the Liffey, under Loopline bridge, shooting the rapids where water chafed around the bridgepiers, sailing eastward past hulls and anchorchains, between the Customhouse old dock and George’s quay.