Menai Bridge

(see also: Llanfairpwllgwyngyll | Brynsiencyn)

Built in 1826 by Thomas Telford, the Menai Suspension Bridge gave the residents of the island of Anglesey access to the Welsh mainland, without risking their lives on the ferries across the Menai Strait. 

In 1850, the Britannia bridge was built nearby by Robert Stephenson to carry the railway line to Holyhead over the Strait too, and these two bridges served the island well until 1970. In that year, the Britannia Bridge was accidentally set on fire by two boys, but was rebuilt, and now not only carries the railway line, but the A55 Expressway on an upper deck too.

The town of Menai Bridge nowadays has all the usual shopping amenities, and also has a good reputation for more exotic food. There is a bowling green and an art gallery.

Just outside Menai Bridge on the B5420 is Pili Palas, a butterfly farm, which is also home to other insects, reptiles and birds.