Menai Suspension Bridge

The Menai Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Menai Strait between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales. Designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826, it was the world's first major suspension bridge. The bridge still carries road traffic and is a Grade I listed structure.

Glacial erosion along a corridor of vulnerability connected to the Menai Strait Fault System produced the Menai Strait. A sequence of ice sheets passed through Anglesey and the neighboring Arfon during a period of Pleistocene glaciations, eroding the underlying rock and leaving behind a series of linear bedrock hollows. As the ice sheets retreated, creating the Menai Strait, the deepest of these canals finally became swamped by the sea.

Because of its tall banks, which would be high enough for sailing ships to pass underneath, the bridge's location was chosen. A suspension bridge, according to Telford, would be the ideal choice since it would have a span large enough to traverse the Strait's swiftly moving waves at this point. The Parliament approved of his advice. Menai Suspension Bridge is one of the most beautiful historical sites in Anglesey.

Location: Menai Strait, Anglesey