The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is a navigable aqueduct that
carries the Llangollen
Canal over the valley of the River Dee in Wrexham
County Borough in north east Wales. Completed in 1805,
it is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain, a Grade I Listed Building and a World Heritage Site.
The aqueduct, built by Thomas Telford and William Jessop, is
1,007 ft (307 m) long, 11 ft (3.4 m) wide and 5.25 ft
(1.60 m) deep. It consists of a cast iron trough supported
126 ft (38 m) above the river on iron arched ribs carried on nineteen
hollow masonry piers (pillars). Each span is 53 ft (16 m) wide.
Despite considerable public scepticism, Telford was confident the construction
method would work: he had previously built at least one cast iron trough
aqueduct – the Longdon-on-Tern
aqueduct on the Shrewsbury
Canal, still visible in the middle of a field, though the canal was
abandoned years ago. Part of what was originally called the Ellesmere Canal, it was
one of the first major feats of civil engineering undertaken
by Telford, by then a leading civil engineer, supervised
by Jessop, the more experienced canal engineer. The iron was supplied by William Hazledine from his
foundries at Shrewsbury
and nearby Cefn Mawr.
It was opened on 26 November 1805, having taken around ten years to design and
build at a total cost of £47,000.
Adjusted for inflation this is equal to £2,930,000 as of 2012, however a
structure of this type would cost more to build today due to other factors that
didn't exist in the early 19th century such as higher wages (adjusted for
inflation), safety measures, new regulations and taxes, financing fees and so
on.
Photo Legacy: Making your memories last forever www.photolegacy.com
Research courtesy of Wikipedia
Images courtesy of The Library of Congress Under the
Commons agreement on
http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3752424226/
No comments:
Post a Comment