River Foyle, Derry, Northern Ireland.

Sculptural installation on opposite banks of the River Foyle; a reconstructed 120 year-old railway bridge, which cantilevers over the river. The two halves are joined at night by a bridge of light.

Between 2003 and 2005 I was commissioned by Derry City Council and Sustrans to make ‘Third Bridge ‘, a sculpture which takes as its starting point a 120 year-old footbridge that used to cross the Derry-Belfast railway line.

Working with the help of artists Mark Hill and Guyan Porter we cut up the bridge and reassembled it painstakingly around a hidden structural subframe which allows each half to project 7m out over the water.

The cut end of each half is finished with a viewing grille, which frames the view of the identical half on the opposite bank. At night-time, hidden led lights switch on, changing colour as they shine across at each other,  creating a bridge of light across the river.

Stepping out onto the half-bridge, the walkway tapers until it’s just wide enough for one person. Standing at the end, the viewer is aware of their smallness in relation to the 400m wide fast flowing tidal river, which divides the Protestant and Catholic communities in a city which has become demographically polarised through sectarianism.

Third Bridge offers the viewer  an alternative perspective on Derry/ Londonderry’s troubled history and perceived notions of contested space. It addresses the river and its two opposite banks not as a dividing line but as a point from which to build bridges, both imagined and real.

The project was commissioned and managed by Derry City Council and Sustrans, with additional funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure.