The earth and its inhabitants (1881) (14597593218)

Identifier: earthitsinhabita481recl (find matches)

Title: The earth and its inhabitants ..

Year: 1881 (1880s)

Authors: Reclus, Elisée, 1830-1905 Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913 Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry), 1833-1912

Subjects: Geography

Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company

Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library

Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

Text Appearing Before Image:

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, whicb 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 « Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, ilay, 1SG6. WALES. 63 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 feet.Its 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 them.By far the more elegant of these structures is the Suspension Bridge, designed Fig. 26.—The Bkitannia Tubular Bkidge, ^Ienai Strait.

Text Appearing After Image:

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 Brifannm, 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 engineering 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 Britain.Here the most revered of the Druids had their- seat, and from this remotelocality, surrounded on all sides by water, they exercised that sort of power r)4 THE

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1881

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