Menai Bridge, North Wales

The historic Menai bridge is one of the two links that connect the island of Anglesey to the mainland. This engineering masterpiece was designed by Thomas Telford and built between 1819 and 1826.

( Following the last post, you will observe that I am continuing my theme in this unofficially titled post "Menai 2".  This is a short architectural and photographic post)

Prior to the bridge being built, cattle were the main source of income on the island and had to be transported to the mainland by ferry.

In 1800 the geographical and political map was a little different and a Government Act was passed to improve links to Holyhead and Ireland which is where the idea for the bridge originally came from.

In 1893 the wooden elements of the bridge deck were replaced with steel and with the subsequent increase in traffic, the wrought iron chains were also replaced with steel ones in 1938.

Another link in the chain ...

... 900 of them !!

In more recent years, the bridge was strengthened, resurfaced and painted in 1999 and 2005.

Breathe in !!

Thomas Telford would never have dreamt that his bridge would have accepted traffic like this !!

I local man walking over the bridge asked me what I was doing as I was taking photos at unusual angles and he was interested to hear who might be seeing these. He told me that Thomas Telford didn't expect the bridge to last more than 20 years.

Following on from last post, you will realise that there wasn't a lot to do in Bangor in the evening so I took a trip along here later for the sunset which on this particular evening was a little disappointing.

My back up plan was a once in a lifetime opportunity to photograph the floodlit bridge. I wasn't happy with the above angle so....

I returned to the location I found by accident for the sunset viewpoint

25 seconds on a windy night !!

.... and another journey over the bridge again finishing off with my original location.

One of my work colleagues who likes to see my photographs and general photos of people always complains to me by saying " we never see any photos of you on your travels "......