The year 1888 saw the last sailing ships pass upstream of Butt Bridge, for in that year what many would consider to be Dublin's ugliest Liffey structure was erected: the Loopline Bridge. This important new railway bridge linked for the first time the railways of the south and north city but sadly created a crude separation of one of Dublin's finest public buildings - the Custom House - from the rest of the city.

The Matt Talbot Bridge, opened in 1978, once again pushed ships downstream. Regrettably, from a historical and visual viewpoint, this took away the possibility of ships ever mooring in front of the Custom House again. The now-vanished blue-and-cream-painted Guin ness ships which berthed here until the mid-1970s were a familiar and much-loved sight.

The East Link toll bridge was opened to traffic in 1984 and for some years took the pressure off the city centre at Butt Bridge. The success of this bridge prompted the development of the West Link toll bridge some years later. It has also been suggested that a tunnel running under the Liffey from east to west, and similarly funded, might be the only way to take heavy traffic off the quays, and to give this part of Dublin back to pedestrians, shops and restaurants.

The enclosure and bridging of the Liffey is well documented as having taken place, for the most part, during the past three centuries, and the history of Dublin City is itself inextricably bound up with the life of the river.

The Liffey, the origin of the city's development, is a welcome natural presence in today's dense creation of man-made structures. Despite the continuous traffic and busy life of this urban centre, there are occasions when the smell of the sea steals up the river on a full tide, especially in winter, and is accompanied by seagulls and even the occasional heron. At other times it carries downstream branches, leaves and all the usual human debris of plastic bags and bottles. In the evening, the light plays on the surface of the water and reflects the quayside buildings and bridges. The river is as fascinating by day as it is by night.

Many artists have been drawn to paint rivers, especially where fine buildings and bridges complement natures work. Architecture and water make a fine marriage, and the old houses of Dublin's riverside were no exception. During the 1790s, various noted painters such as Malton and Brocas depicted the Liffey with the Four Courts. What is remarkable is that, in some respects, very little has changed in 200 years. The monuments such as the Four Courts and the Custom House remain dominant, while the modest width of the quays and the scale of the buildings is still the same. The rows of three and four-storey houses which once lined the river were a varied but harmonious collection of historic buildings, but only a small number of the original 18th-century houses still stand.

As recently as the early 1980s there were plans to widen both traffic routes on either side of the Liffey by demolishing every single quayside house. The only listed buildings which stood in the way were St Paul's Church (Arran Quay), the wonderful Sunlight Chambers, which have recently been refurbished, and Merchant's Arch.

Virtually all of the western quays were wiped out during the 1980s, and after years of vacant derelict sites, many nondescript apartment blocks were erected in their place. The appearance of these new apartments in the late 1980s, however, was part of the new "vote of confidence" in the city centre, which for so long had been ignored.

Many of the quayside houses which are now gone were the homes and businesses of merchants and traders, whose ships were once tied up on Bachelor's Walk or Ormond Quay. The houses had modest but interesting features such as cut stone entrances and doorcases, decorative fanlights, railings and good internal details. They were planned to face the river, of course. The curve of the Liffey with its varied bridges, mean that the quays remain the most memorable aspect of the city.

Peter Pearson is a painter and writer. An exhibition of his paintings runs until Thursday at Oscar Wilde House, 1 Merrion Square. His history of Dun Laoghaire, titletitletitle, O'Brien Press, was a bestseller last year