Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

IRISH MAIL LEAVING THE BRITANNIA BRIDGE. (Photo, London and North-Western Railway Company.) and Tubular Bridges built by Thomas than half a century ago, and still in An Account of the Wonderful Suspension Telford and Robert Stephenson more everyday use. AT the commencement of the eighteenth / \ century a voyage from England to L Jk Ireland was not lightly undertaken. The vile condition of the Welsh roads com- pelled travellers to make either Bristol or Liverpool the port from which to sail. The ships of those days were far from being commodious or comfortable, and when, as often happened, contrary winds and storms protracted the voyage, fared badly. Now, the map Travelling from England to Ireland. the passengers shows very clearly that Holyhead, at the north- west corner of the island of Anglesey, is much nearer the Irish coast than is either Liverpool or Bristol, and this geographical fact presently made it the fashion to brave the joltings of Welsh mountain tracks in preference to the tossings of seventy miles of Irish Sea. It is true that the Holyhead route included the cross- ing of the Menai Straits, which, in certain states of tide and weather, was a very un- pleasant business ; and when these had been negotiated, there remained the roads of Angle- sey, which were, if possible, worse than those of Wales. To the credit side of the Holyhead route could be placed the fact that Anglesey and Liverpool were equidistant from many of the large midland and southern towns. Telford’s Road to Holyhead. rocks, formed in the In 1810 the great engineer, Mr. Thomas Telford, was engaged to deal with the roads between Shrewsbury and Holy head, via Llangollen, Bettws-y-Coed, and Bangor. He blasted built parapets, and embankments, until, place of rough, steep mountain tracks and tenacious quagmires, there was a wide, safe, and splendidly graded road, which even at this day is one of the best in the British Isles. But there still existed the irksome passage of the straits. Until these were bridged the road would be incomplete. Mr. Telford under- took to span the-gap. He-sub- mitted two plans for arched bridges, one of which showed a 500-foot cast-iron arch, to be supported during construc- tion on centres suspended from large frames rising on the two shores. Both these plans were ruled out, however, on the ground that they would interfere seriously with the navi- gation of the straits ; so the engineer decided on a suspension bridge which should clear the water by 100 feet or more—sufficient to permit the passage of a tall ship. The site chosen was at a point where the shore on either side rises steeply, and where the straits are about 800 He decides to bridge the Menai Straits.