28
Aug 10

Menai Bridge

Menai Bridge

Tolls: Foot passengers, 1d.; motor-cycle and side-car, 6d.; motor-cars seating no more than 3 persons, 1s 2d., seating 3-6 persons 1s. 9d. All these tolls are for the double journey.

This bridge, which spans the strait at a point 1 1/2 miles from Bangor station, carries the road.

Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century, ferries, five in number, afforded the only means of communication with Anglesey; but owing to the inconvenience and danger to which travellers were exposed, the attention of the Government was seriously directed to the matter, and, Telford’s plans for the bridge having been approved by Parliament, its construction was begun in 1818, and on January 30, 1826, it was opened. Its actual cost was £120,000, and the sum of £26,577 was awarded to the owners of the superseded ferries. The roadway is 100 feet above the surface of the water at the highest tides; the distance between the points of suspension is 560 feet, and the total length of the roadway is said to be 1,000 feet. Only four fatal accidents occurred among the workmen engaged in the erection of the bridge, and those who lost their lives represented the four nationalities included in the United Kingdom.

Coincidence? I don’t think so! In any case useful trivia in case this question ever came up in the Thursday pub quiz. Also, the house by the bridge looks totally awesome now!