CONWY TUBULAR RR BRIDGE 1848-1850 Robert Stephenson Caernarvonshire. HEW108 SH785 774 N53 16’ 53.5” W3 49’ 15.8”
This bold bridge over the Conwy River was built at the same time as and in the same innovative style as Stephenson’s nearby Brittainnia tubular railroad bridge. A single 400 foot span of two parallel square iron tubes is supported by massive stone tower piers added in 1899. It lies alongside Thomas Telford’s graceful suspension bridge of 1822 crossing the Conwy River in front of the medieval Castle of that name. It carries two tracks of the Holyhead Chester railway line.
The massive tubes were built on the shore and floated by barge to the site and lifted by hydraulic jacks into place exactly as Stephenson had done with his very similar tubular bridge at the Menai Straits begun in 1846.