Broom Bridge

For the nearby train and LUAS station, see Broombridge railway station.

Broom Bridge (Irish: Droichead Broome),^[1] also called Broome Bridge, and sometimes Brougham Bridge, is a bridge along Broombridge Road which crosses the Royal Canal in Cabra, Dublin, Ireland. Broome Bridge is named after William Broome, one of the directors of the Royal Canal company who lived nearby.

Plaque on Broome Bridge

Broom Bridge Droichead Broome
Broom Bridge viewed from the west from the towpath
Coordinates	53.373°N 6.3°W / 53.373; -6.3
Crosses	Royal Canal
Locale	Dublin
Location

It is famous for being the location where Sir William Rowan Hamilton first wrote down the fundamental formula for quaternions on 16 October 1843, which is to this day commemorated by a stone plaque on the northwest corner of the underside of the bridge. After being spoiled by the action of vandals and some visitors,^[2] the plaque was moved to a different place, higher, under the railing of the bridge.

The text on the plaque reads:

Here as he walked by
on the 16th of October 1843
Sir William Rowan Hamilton
in a flash of genius discovered
the fundamental formula for
quaternion multiplication
${\displaystyle i^{2}=j^{2}=k^{2}=ijk=-1}$
& cut it on a stone of this bridge.

Given the historical importance of the bridge with respect to mathematics, mathematicians from all over the world have been known to take part in the annual commemorative walk from Dunsink Observatory to the site. Attendees have included Nobel Prize winners Murray Gell-Mann, Steven Weinberg and Frank Wilczek, and mathematicians Sir Andrew Wiles, Sir Roger Penrose and Ingrid Daubechies.^[3] The 16 October is sometimes referred to as Broomsday (in reference to Broome Bridge) and as a nod to the literary commemorations on 16 June (Bloomsday in honour of James Joyce).

In literature

• Broom Bridge, named as Brougham Bridge, along with Hamilton's eureka moment, are mentioned in the Thomas Pynchon novel Against the Day.^[4]

References

1. "Droichead Broome/Broome Bridge". Placenames Database of Ireland. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
2. Baez, John (2004). "Brougham Bridge". John Baez’s Stuff. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
3. "Hamilton Walk". Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Maynooth University. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
4. Pynchon, Thomas (2006). Against the Day.

Further reading

• Delany, Ruth; Bath, Ian (2010). Ireland's Royal Canal 1789-2009. Dublin: Lilliput Press. ISBN 978-1-84351-162-5. OCLC 503633679.

External links

• Broom Bridge at Structurae
• Broom Bridge at National Inventory of Architectural Heritage