Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Built by Thomas Telford, 1795 – 1805 there are 18 piers of local stone, the central ones over the Dee being 126′ high up to the ironwork.

The canal runs through the iron trough, 1007′ long, 11′ 10” wide and 5′ 3” deep, the largest in Britain. The iron was supplied by William Hazeldine form his foundaries at Shrewsbury and nearby Cefn Mawr.

Total cost £47,000

Water is fed from the Dee at the Horseshoe Falls at Llantysilio near Llangollen.

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

18 Comments CherryPie on Feb 24th 2015

18 Responses to “Pontcysyllte Aqueduct”

  1. lisl says:

    What an architectural feat for the time, Cherie

  2. ....peter:) says:

    i really like the top two pictures Cherie… i have never seen an iron aqueduct and you have displayed it nicely….peter:)

  3. Ginnie says:

    At £47,000, that sounds like a good deal, Cherry. WOW!

  4. This is a remarkable engineering feat!
    Have you been to the Falkirk Wheel?
    That’s quite interesting too :)

  5. Ah – that’s a place that’s long been on the list to visit; lucky you!

  6. ubermouth says:

    That’s incredible that back then they understood engineering enough to make this bridge,let alone one that could withstand time. And it truly is beautiful as well.

  7. Mark in Mayenne says:

    Been over that in a narrowboat :)

    • CherryPie says:

      I didn’t venture across it on foot, I am a bit funny with heights. I would however like to travel across it in a boat. I bet there is a fantastic view :-)

  8. Jane says:

    Nice photos Cherie! We did walk across this a few years ago and brings back some nice memories.

  9. J_on_tour says:

    Thomas Telford, what a genius of a civil engineer he was. His name keeps cropping up in the most unusual of places.
    Stopped off twice in Llangollen for a short period of time in recent years. Not enough time to explore this magnificent aqueduct structure although I did make it up to the Llangollen canal wharf on the second occasion.