CHAP. XII. THE MENAI BRIDGE. 457 



from the Caernarvon fastening on the rock to that on 

 Angiesea. The announcement of the fact was followed 

 by loud and prolonged cheering from the workmen, 

 echoed by the spectators, and extending along the Straits 

 on both sides, until it seemed to die away along the 

 shores in the distance. Three foolhardy workmen, 

 excited by the day's proceedings, had the temerity to 

 scramble along the upper surface of the chain which 

 was only nine inches wide and formed a curvature of 

 590 feet from one side of the Strait to the other! 



Far different were the feelings of the engineer who 

 had planned this magnificent work. Its failure had been 

 predicted ; and, like Brindley's Barton Viaduct, it had 

 been freely spoken of as a " castle in the air." Telford 

 had, it is true, most carefully tested every point by 

 repeated experiment, and so conclusively proved the 

 sufficiency of the iron chains to bear the immense weight 

 they would have to support, that he was thoroughly con- 

 vinced as to the soundness of his principles of construc- 

 tion ; and satisfied that, if rightly manufactured and pro- 

 perly put together, the chains would hold together and 

 the piers would sustain them. Still there was necessarily 

 an element of uncertainty in the undertaking. It was 

 the largest structure of the kind that had ever been 

 attempted. There was the contingency of a flaw in the 

 iron ; some possible scamping in its manufacture ; some 

 little point which, in the multiplicity of details to be 

 attended to, he might have overlooked, or which his 

 subordinates might have neglected. It was, indeed, 

 impossible but that he should feel intensely anxious as 

 to the result of the day's operations. Mr. Telford after- 

 wards stated to a friend, only a few months before his 

 death, that for some time previous to the opening of the 

 bridge, his anxiety was so extreme that he could scarcely 

 sleep ; and that a continuance of that condition must 

 have very soon completely undermined his health. We 

 are not, therefore, surprised to learn that when his 



