The second of these vast railway bridges crosses the Menai Straits,
which separate Caernarvon from the island of Anglesey. It is constructed
a good hundred feet above high-water level, to enable large vessels to
sail beneath it; and in building it, neither scaffolding nor centering
was used.
The abutments on either side of the Straits are huge piles of masonry.
That on the Anglesey side is 143 feet high, and 173 feet long. The wing
walls of both terminate in splendid pedestals, and on each are two
colossal lions, of Egyptian design; each being 25 feet long, 12 feet
high though crouched, 9 feet abaft the body, and each paw 2 feet 1
inches. Each weighs 30 tons. The towers for supporting the tube are of a
like magnitude with the entire work. The great Britannia Tower, in the
centre of the Straits, is 62 feet by 52 feet at its base; its total
height from the bottom, 230 feet; it contains 148,625 cubic feet of
limestone, and 144,625 of sandstone; it weighs 20,000 tons; and there
are 387 tons of cast iron built into it in the shape of beams and
girders. It sustains the four ends of the four long iron tubes which
span the Straits from shore to shore. The total quantity of stone
contained in the bridge is 1,500,000 cubic feet.
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