The Other Side
The Drone allowed me to fly over the bridge and get a photo looking the other side, we are standing by the statue on a small headland just on the other side of the bridge.
After the bridge was badly damaged by fire in 1970 it was rebuilt to carry the railway line this time using conventional steel arches to support the weight, the line was reduced to single rather than double as rail traffic had declined and lines closed after Beeching. With the increase in road traffic the need for a second Menai crossing was urgently required and a scheme devised to utilise the existing bridge. The rail line reopened in 1974 but work continued to add a second deck above the rails to create a road bridge. By 1980 the A55 had been built and opend allowing a new route to Holyhead and the rest of the island. Due to constraints of the original piers, the road deck was single carriage way in each direction, the rest of the A55 now either side of the bridge is dual which can create a bottle neck at certain times of the day or during high winds.
There are very tentative plans for a new dual carraige way bridge at some point in the future virtually next to this one.
The Other Side
The Drone allowed me to fly over the bridge and get a photo looking the other side, we are standing by the statue on a small headland just on the other side of the bridge.
After the bridge was badly damaged by fire in 1970 it was rebuilt to carry the railway line this time using conventional steel arches to support the weight, the line was reduced to single rather than double as rail traffic had declined and lines closed after Beeching. With the increase in road traffic the need for a second Menai crossing was urgently required and a scheme devised to utilise the existing bridge. The rail line reopened in 1974 but work continued to add a second deck above the rails to create a road bridge. By 1980 the A55 had been built and opend allowing a new route to Holyhead and the rest of the island. Due to constraints of the original piers, the road deck was single carriage way in each direction, the rest of the A55 now either side of the bridge is dual which can create a bottle neck at certain times of the day or during high winds.
There are very tentative plans for a new dual carraige way bridge at some point in the future virtually next to this one.