The bridge, connecting Pearse Street to Ringsend Road] which appears to be named "Grand Canal Bridge" on Google Maps is in fact "MacMahon Bridge".

The MacMahon Bridge over the Grand Canal Dock at Pearse Street/Ringsend Road, was officially opened by The Lord Mayor, Cllr. Paddy Bourke on Friday 30th of May 2008.

Apart from it’s historical significance, this bridge is a crucial link in the traffic management of the city, carrying up to 16,000 vehicles per day and is vital to the operation of the South Port.

It also greatly facilitates the switch to public transport by commuters and residents and links the existing communities in the Pearse Street area with the newly developed Docklands developments and the villages of Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount.

The new bridge consists of a cantilevered structure over existing quay walls for the full 90 metre length of causeway, in order to provide adequate width for two traffic lanes and two bus lanes.

Ringsend was originally a long narrow peninsula separated from the rest of Dublin by the then much broader estuary of the River Dodder. On early maps its name is given as "Ring's Ende" and the nearest settlements to it are given the names Merryon (Merrion) and Donny Brook. The original village of Ringsend would have been (approximately) where Sandymount Green is today.

At about the same time as the River Dodder was diverted at what is now the junction of Newbridge Avenue and Lansdowne Bridge, Sandymount (formerly known as The Brickfields) came into being. The English having moved the Irish outside the city walls started referring to the area towards the Ringsend peninsula as an "Irishtown." Reclamation of Dodder estuary and Liffey areas, including the building of York and Pidgeon House Roads and the Great South Wall (South Bull Wall), and development in the 16th and 17th centuries, out to the Poolbeg Lighthouse, led to an expansion of the area.