First Stone Laid at Pontcysyllte
- When
- 25 July 1795
- Where
- Pontcysyllte Aqueduct site, Vale of Llangollen, northeast Wales
The foundation stone of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was laid on 25 July 1795, beginning construction of the canal crossing over the River Dee.
A commemorative inscription states that the first stone of the Pontcysyllte aqueduct was laid on 25 July 1795 (MDCCXCV). The inscription frames the undertaking as creating intercourse and union between England and North Wales by a navigable communication of the Rivers Severn, Dee, and Mersey, for the mutual benefit of agriculture and trades. The aqueduct had been designed by Thomas Telford and William Jessop for a site near the 18th-century road crossing called Pont Cysyllte, and formed part of the central section of the proposed Ellesmere Canal.
Sources
- Pontcysyllte Aqueduct Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-24
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.