I am blessed with two talented children who teach me so much every day.  Claire has an imaginative and artistic eye that she uses to great effect in her photography of buildings and landscapes.  Andrew has been fascinated by architecture since he was a toddler and stood in our hall to carefully run his hand over the curved beaded siding on our wall.  As a preservationist and father, I love talking with them about their passions.

So when Andrew texted me on Friday morning to say, “Dad, there are two Santiago Calatrava-designed bridges in Dublin,” I knew they must be special.  I wanted to see them not only based on Andrew’s message, but because I had seen the Spanish-born Calatrava’s Milwaukee Art Museum (a building I’ll be in again in a few weeks) and was intrigued as to  how he handled his designs in this city of bridges.

To make a long story short, I left in dawn’s early light this morning and went on a 1 1/2 hour walk, beginning at Calatrava’s James Joyce Bridge (2003) and ending at his still-to-be-completed Samuel Beckett Bridge (2010 – in the photo above).  In between I took photos of each of the bridges on Dublin’s River Liffey.  (Warning:  I’m not as good a photographer as Claire.)  Enjoy this look at Dublin’s River Liffey bridges – in their order on the river and in the dawn’s early light.  (If you put your cursor over the picture you should see the name and date of the bridge.  And keep looking, as the best – the Irish harp shaped Beckett bridge – is saved until last.)

More to come…

DJB