The sketch shows a four-arched stone bridge equipped with cutwaters, the angled projections built into the piers of a bridge to divide the current and reduce the force of water against the structure. It is a functional, considered piece of engineering, and its presence in a late seventeenth-century drawing suggests the crossing was already well established by that point, serving as a southern approach to Dublin long before the suburb it once anchored became absorbed into the city.

The drawing itself was brought to wider attention by J. Maher, writing in 1932, who noted both the image and its title. The use of the older spelling 'Donnebrooke' places it firmly in a period when the village sat at a comfortable remove from the city, and when the bridge would have carried significant traffic along the road south. Cutwaters on a bridge of this period were not decorative; they were a practical response to the realities of a working river crossing, protecting the piers from flood debris and strong currents. The Dodder, which the bridge spans, has a long reputation for sudden and damaging floods, which makes the robustness of the original design all the more understandable.

The present bridge at Donnybrook sits on a busy road junction in what is now a dense urban neighbourhood, and there is little about the immediate surroundings to prompt reflection on its earlier form. Visitors with an interest in the site are best served by seeking out Maher's 1932 account, which reproduces or describes the 1698 drawing, rather than expecting any visible trace of the original structure on the ground. The Dodder itself remains a constant, and walking its banks in either direction from the bridge offers a sense of the river's character, particularly after heavy rainfall when its speed and volume make the logic of those old cutwaters feel suddenly very present.