Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

It's our exhilarating stream in the sky. Our horseshoe of waterfalls in North East Wales. Our beautiful canal. Not one but two aqueducts. Our World Heritage Site. Breathtaking!

Opened in 1805 the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is the longest of Britain's 370 Aqueducts. It is a 1,000 foot span of iron and stone which carries a million and a half litres of water the Ellesmere canal suspended 126 feet above the River Dee like an enormous flying bathtub by 19 pillars.

It was the longest and highest canal aqueduct in the world on its opening and remains so today. It is one of the greatest achievements of the Industrial Revolution.

Designed by a godfather of engineering, Thomas Telford, his house overlooks his greatest achievement - and his first involvement in canals. Approximately 20,000 boats per year crossed the aqueduct in its heyday, allowing the canal systems of England and Wales to be joined together at last.

• Pontcysyllte means 'the bridge that connects'.
• There are 18 piers 126ft high, and 19 arches each with a 45ft span.
• To keep the aqueduct as light as possible, the slender masonry piers are partly hollow and taper at their summit.
• The mortar was made of oxen blood, lime and water. Kind of like treacle toffee.
• The aqueduct holds 1.5 million litres of water and takes two hours to drain.
• The structure is 1,007ft long, with the River Dee running beneath it.
• The work was undertaken by Thomas Telford and supervised by the more experienced canal engineer William Jessop.
• The first stone was laid in July 1795. It was completed in 1805 using local stone.
• This is the largest aqueduct in Britain. It's fed by water from the Horseshoe Falls near Llangollen.
• The water runs through an iron trough that measures 11ft 10ins wide and 5ft 3ins deep.
• Ox blood was used as part of the masonary mortar

You can also abseil to clean up the structure!

Warning - if travelling over the aqueduct on a canal boat there are no safety barriers in many places.