Pontcysyllte Aqueduct Construction Begins

Background. The aqueduct was planned as a key part of the central section of the proposed Ellesmere Canal, an industrial waterway intended to link the River Severn at Shrewsbury with the Port of Liverpool on the River Mersey. Although a cheaper route had been surveyed further east, the westerly high-ground route across the Vale of Llangollen was preferred because it would carry the canal through the mineral-rich coalfields of North East Wales.

Design and Engineers. Civil engineers Thomas Telford and William Jessop designed the aqueduct for a location near Pont Cysyllte, an 18th-century road crossing. Telford, then emerging as one of Britain's leading industrial civil engineers, had already built the cast-iron Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct on the Shrewsbury Canal and was confident in his construction method despite public scepticism; Jessop, the more experienced canal engineer, supervised his work.

Commencement of Construction. An inscription records that the work aimed at creating union between England and North Wales through a navigable communication of the Rivers Severn, Dee, and Mersey for the mutual benefit of agriculture and trade, and that the first stone of the Pontcysyllte aqueduct was laid on 25 July 1795.