. The earth and its inhabitants .. . r Ramsay is of opinion that the valley now occupied by the strait is ofglacial origin, and was scooped out, not by the glaciers of Snowdon, which neverreached so far, but by those of Cumberland.* If it is true that horsemen wereformerly able to cross the strait at low water, great changes must have taken * Quarterhj Journal of the Geological Society, May, 1866. 1 WALES. 53 place along this part of the coast of Wales during historical times. At present thewidth of the strait is nowhere less than 560 feet, whilst its least depth is 16 northern entran
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . r Ramsay is of opinion that the valley now occupied by the strait is ofglacial origin, and was scooped out, not by the glaciers of Snowdon, which neverreached so far, but by those of Cumberland.* If it is true that horsemen wereformerly able to cross the strait at low water, great changes must have taken * Quarterhj Journal of the Geological Society, May, 1866. 1 WALES. 53 place along this part of the coast of Wales during historical times. At present thewidth of the strait is nowhere less than 560 feet, whilst its least depth is 16 northern entrance is accessible to vessels at all stages of the tide, whilst thesouthern entrance is closed by a bar having only 6 feet of water above it. Twofamous bridges span this strait, and join Anglesey to the mainland. Theirheight is so considerable that sailing vessels of average size can pass beneath far the more elegant of these structures is the Suspension Bridge, designed Fig. 26.—The Britannia Tubulak Bridge, ]\Iexai by Telford, and opened for traffic in 1826. The height of its roadway above highwater is 100 feet, and the central opening, between the two suspending piers, is553 feet wide. The other bridge was erected by Robert Stephenson, and isknown as the Britannia Tubular Bridge, from the rock on which the middle toweris erected, the rock itself having been named after the Britannia, which waswrecked upon it. The bridge has a total length of 1,833 feet, and is divided intofour spans, the two centre ones being each 460 feet wide. This bridge was builtfor the railway from London to Holyhead, which runs across it. It is remarkableas an engmeering work, but it has been surpassed, since its construction, not onlyin Holland and the United States, but also in the British Isles. Anglesey, the ancient Mona, was formerly the heart of Celtic the most revered of the Druids had their seat, and from this remotelocality, surrounded on all sides by water, they
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
