About Our Bridges

Menai Suspension Bridge

The Bridges

Lets chat more about the bridges, well as you can see there are two connecting Anglesey with the mainland but many are not aware of the secret the two bridges hold. Well its a simple one and a bit of a shocker to many, you see when one enters either of the bridges from the mainland they are actually exciting not just mainland Wales but also Great Britain itself.

Now that sounds peculiar to many but although The Isle of Anglesey is part of both Wales and the United Kingdom it is like many of the other islands round England Scotland and Wales not part of Great Britain you see there are only two countries in Great Britain and they are of course England and Scotland and one principality, yes, Wales. This is why we say the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Beautiful Wales don't even get a look in there either.

What about the names, well Telford's Bridge is more confusing than Stephenson's Bridge known as Britannia Bridge or Pont Britannia in the welsh language. We will start however with Telford's, the correct name is Menai Suspension Bridge or Pont Grog Menai again in welsh and locals can call it Pont Menai, but many just call it Menai Bridge or Telford Bridge, Thomas Telford designed the bridge and it was completed in 1826.

However our town of Menai Bridge also has it's confusions with names and like many great welsh towns when you see the welsh name of Porthaethwy locals refer to it colloquially as Y Borth, all this may seem odd to visitors but we all agree here it makes us very special and living in a quite village by the sea has it's many rewards.

Getting back to Telford’s Bridge it has over the years had many alterations, new roadways and even the wrought iron chains were replaced with

steel ones, many other interesting things have happened over the years including a man who once caused a stir when he climbed to the top and as no one at the time knew what he was up to the traffic was stopped for hours.

Stephenson's 1850 bridge, has had it share of excitement too, when Britannia Bridge was first constructed in the mid 1800’s it was a box girder type and Stephenson designed it well, well apart from one thing, originally a bridge just for trains but the roof of the tunnel through the box sections was covered with bitumen and unfortunately in May 1970 it caught fire.

A new beginning for the Britannia Bridge came about because of the fire and after much refurbishing and new structures it was again opened but this time with a roadway running over the railway line.

Britannia Bridge

You can find out more about both these bridges at the Menai Heritage website.

Institute of Civil Engineers - Thomas Telford Prize

Telford Prize Coin

This prize, known as the Telford Prize, is the highest award of the Institution