Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

We left Shrewsbury this morning for a day of exploring in Wales. Our first stop was the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (pronounced pont–ker–sulth–tay), a navigable aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee in the Vale of Llangollen in northeast Wales. The 18-arched stone and cast iron structure was designed by Thomas Telford and was completed in 1805. It is the longest aqueduct in Great Britain as well as the highest canal aqueduct in the world. The aqueduct was to have been a key part of the central section of the proposed Ellesmere Canal, an industrial waterway that would have created a commercial link between the River Severn at Shrewsbury and the Port of Liverpool on the River Mersey. However, the entire canal system was never completed. Within 3 years of completion of the aqueduct, the rail network had surpassed canal shipping in both cost and efficiency.Läs mer