Giddy to look
Giddy to look
In Brief
At 134 ft. Nelson's Pillar
rose high above all the buildings around it, affording a
panoramic view of Dublin comparable to the one enjoyed today
from the Gravity Bar atop the Guinness Storehouse museum,
which stands 144 ft. high. The pillar's viewing platform was
exposed to the elements, however, and only simple iron "railings"
kept the people who climbed the 166 steps to the top from
returning to the ground more quickly. The view from those
railings was no doubt sufficiently precipitous to induce
vertigo and clinched sphincters. Stephen evokes the physical
discomfort experienced by his two protagonists: "they are
afraid the pillar will fall. . . . it makes
them giddy to look so they pull up their skirts."
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An early 20th century photograph held in the National Library
of Ireland documents the view straight down from the
projecting viewers' platform, capable of unsettling the bowels
even in a two-dimensional black-and-white simulacrum. The
image shows the tram
powerlines running up Sackville (O'Connell) Street,
people entering and leaving Henry Street to the west, and a
lone automobile snaking its way up the street through dense
pedestrian traffic. Until gasoline engines began to devour the
city in the mid-20th century Sackville Street was primarily a
wide mall for relaxed pedestrian strolling, as Henry Street is
today.
