Chain Bridge (Berwyn)
The Chain Bridge is a footbridge over the River Dee at Berwyn, Llangollen, Denbighshire, north Wales.
Is owned by Llangollen Town Council and a pathway from Berwyn railway station, now part of the Llangollen Railway, leads under a subway and down to the bridge and to the Chain Bridge Hotel on the other side.
The current bridge is the third such bridge, and was built by
First bridge
The first chain bridge was built by Exuperius Pickering in order to transport coal, lime, stone, etc from the Shropshire Union Canal, (Llangollen Canal) across the Dee to Telford's recently completed London to Holyhead road. The bridge allowed Pickering to bypass the Llangollen toll bridge further downstream, and transport coal from his mines near Acrefair up the canal and onwards to Corwen. Permission to build it was granted in 1814 and it was completed by 1818, making it one of the first chain bridges in the world.[1]
Second bridge
The second bridge was built by railway engineer and industrialist Henry Robertson in 1876 using the existing chains of the first bridge.
Third bridge
Henry Robertson's son, Sir Henry Beyer Robertson was the head of
The chain bridge was rebuilt as a suspension footbridge reusing some of the existing chains. In 2015 its complete restoration after years of neglect was completed and it is a major tourist attraction.[2][3][4][5]
52°58′49″N 3°11′41″W / 52.980407°N 3.194792°W
References
- ^ "Chain Bridges and Welsh Iron". Engineering Timelines. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
- ^ "Chain Bridge Llangollen - Plas Kynaston Canal Group". plaskynastoncanalgroup.org. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
- ^ "Chain Bridge Project". Facebook. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
- ^ "Historic Llangollen Chain Bridge re-opened to the public after 30 years | Heritage Lottery Fund". www.hlf.org.uk. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
- ^ "'Oldest chain bridge in the world' to re-open in Llangollen". Retrieved 31 July 2015.