Iron lattice girder bridges were introduced to Ireland and the U.K. by Irish railway engineer Sir John Benjamin McNeill, who was a pupil, and later an associate, of Thomas Telford. McNeill was also the engineer of the Dublin – Cork railway line which terminates at Heuston Station.

Lattice girders were introduced to the Obelisk Bridge to replace the former wooden structure which had been carried away by the action of ice and floods in 1867. The original bridge together with its stone abutments was erected in 1856. The abutments were reused, partially rebuilt. The bridge was associated with the nearby Obelisk which was destroyed by Nationalists in 1922.