While in North Wales over the weekend for the new year I took a walk around The Menai Suspension Bridge, which connects the isle of Anglesey to mainland Wales from the town of Menai Bridge, to basically Bangor.
We used to live in Menai Bridge, not that far from it, so know it quite well. Its an absolutely beautiful bridge, with its iconic arches, and heavy chains that support the suspended span.
Its quite a colossal structure considering that it was built back in the early 1800s, finishing in 1826. The road along the seafront on the island, goes under the first arch - and the bridge towers high above the road.
The middle span is 176 meters in length, which was a considerable unsupported length back on those days. And you can see it in the design, as the bridge is solid in every aspect, whether the stone work or the chains and supports - its humongous !
The bridge still takes traffic today, and has two very narrow carriages on it, although smaller buses can just get through. However, it was closed for repair work and only taking foot passengers last week, but is expected to open again at the end of January. There is a newer, larger and more modern bridge further up (the Britannia Bridge), so its not like the island is cut-off when it is under maintenance.
I took the picture above the following day from the bridge view point, which is on Anglesey. The mountains you can see in the background are on the mainland, and its a beautiful scene.
The pic above is taken from under the bridge looking out along the Menai Strait towards England (so looking east-ish). The town of Menai Bridge is on the left, whereas Bangor is on the mainland on the right.
My wife's grandfather used to actually work on the bridge as a caretaker, and would help deal with any issues. He did this for a number of decades up until sometime in the 1990s. There is no longer a caretaker needed, as it is all dealt with remotely now.
The bridge was designed by Thomas Telford, with construction taking 7 years. 16 chains had to be installed to support the central span, with each chain weighing in at around 130 tons ! Just getting each chain in place, link-by-link, was a major operation back in those days, and quite a feat of engineering !
Its certainly is a beautiful bridge, and very popular with the locals and tourists. The walks underneath it on the island side are always busy, with the path taking you along the edge of the Strait, and right under the bridge along a lovely promenade.
Further up along the promenade is a small island, called church island, from where the pic above was taken. So it really does afford beautiful views from wherever you look at it.
And I loved this solitary boat that was moored up just by it when I was there. There are more boats moored up further along the Strait, but this wee one seemed quite funny next to the huge bridge !
Well it was lovely to go and see it close up again (inc from afar). The design is amazing for when it was built, but I also love how they took so much pride in wanting it to also be a beautiful bridge in design, and they certainly managed that !
I'd certainly recommend it as a must see for anyone in the area, and its amazing that its still in full use after all these years - so make sure you also go across it if you go and see it !
