The Bridge
The Menai Suspension Bridge — Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Thomas Telford’s Menai Suspension Bridge opened in 1826 as the world’s first great iron suspension bridge, finally fixing Anglesey to the mainland after centuries of dangerous ferry crossings. Its 100-foot clearance was set so sailing ships could pass beneath; two centuries on it remains in daily service and is Grade I listed — best appreciated from the water’s edge below, where the scale tells.
The Town & the Swellies
The little town of Menai Bridge (Porthaethwy) beneath it repays an hour: walk out to Church Island on its causeway for the classic two-bridges view, browse the delis and eat well — the town has become one of North Wales’s better food addresses, and hosts the Menai Food Festival. Between the two bridges churn the Swellies — the whirlpooled narrows that the regatta fleets race through and cruise boats visit from Beaumaris.
From Beaumaris
Ten minutes by car along the A545, with the strait alongside the whole way; by bus, the Bangor services stop in both towns; on foot, the coastal path walk takes 2–2.5 hours each way. Combine with Bangor across the bridge or push on to Caernarfon for a castle double-bill — see Day Trips.
Two Bridges, One Story
A mile down the strait stands the second crossing: Robert Stephenson’s Britannia Bridge, opened in 1850 as a revolutionary tubular railway bridge, rebuilt after the 1970 fire as today’s two-deck road-and-rail crossing. Together the bridges bracket the Swellies and tell the whole story of how engineering conquered the strait — Telford for the mail coaches, Stephenson for the railway age. The shoreline walks and viewpoints between them (Church Island especially) give the best perspectives, and bridge enthusiasts should time a visit for low water, when the Swellies show their rocks and the crossings’ necessity becomes vivid.
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