MENAI STRAITS BRIDGE 1826 Caernarvonshire Thomas Telford HEW 109 SH556 715 {N53 13’ 6.9” W4 9’ 40.6”}
As well as being one of the great engineering feats of history, the Menai suspension bridge is also one of the most spectacular and beautiful of bridges. It’s setting in the tidal straits between Anglesey Island and Gwyndd is a perilous site for a bridge as the straits there experience fierce gales as well as twice daily tides of twenty feet or more. Thomas Telford designed this bridge in 1817 as the crowning feature of his Holyhead to London road. Its total length is 1710 feet of which 559 feet are the suspended bridge. Seven bold stone arches reach from either shore out to the two pyramidal towers from which the suspended bridge hangs 100 feet above mean high tide from four sets of wrought iron chains.
John Wilson who was the contractor took seven years to build it. Severe storms over the years created the kind of damage to which suspension bridges are most vulnerable - racking and undulation - which the flexibility of the chains cannot resist. In spite of major repairs and modifications over the past 180 years, the bridge still stands essentially as Telford designed it. A number of books have been written about the challenges faced during its construction and those who love an engineering thriller would enjoy reading more about the making of this masterpiece and about its designer Thomas Telford: a very remarkable man.