Bridge · Wales · Restored

Britannia Bridge

Pont Britannia

Britannia Bridge is a high-level crossing of the Menai Strait linking the Isle of Anglesey with mainland Wales. Opened in 1850, Robert Stephenson's original design comprised two parallel wrought-iron rectangular tubular spans supported on massive stone masonry towers and piers, carrying railway traffic inside the tubes.

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Photograph via Wikimedia Commons

First raised

1850

Its prime

1850

Today

Restored

As it stood in 1850

What Britannia Bridge looked like in its prime.

At its 1850 prime the bridge presented two long, parallel rectangular wrought-iron box-girders stretching between massive square stone towers sitting on the strait's piers. The riveted iron plates were dark grey, the stonework a pale weathered grey-brown. A continuous arched timber roof ran over both tubes and was sheathed in tarred hessian, with a narrow maintenance walkway along the roof crest. The structure sat high above the water, the spans dominating the narrow channel with open countryside beyond.

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7 places to explore in 1850.

The record describes 7 distinct spots at Britannia Bridge, including 2 interiors: inside a tubular girder at track level, interior chamber of a masonry tower. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more photos, more angles and more of the immersive experience.

Mainland approach looking along the spanBase at Britannia RockInside a tubular girder at track levelCentral maintenance walkway above the roofLions at the eastern abutmentInterior chamber of a masonry towerFrom the Menai Strait looking up

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