Three bridges

It's a beautiful morning, and after yesterday’s Bodnant experience, we decide to head out early to avoid the crowds.

My aim is to capture the three  Conwy bridges for today’s Wide Wednesday challenge - Leading Lines. The light is simply gorgeous - close to that magic Mediterranean quality that bathes everything in glistening clarity, and as we walk towards the town, Conwy does indeed resemble a little French fishing harbour. 

During Covid, Conwy has introduced one-way pedestrian access, allowing us to cross via the 200 year old suspension bridge. This has been a glorious treat, allowing us to enter the walled town via what seems to be a magnificent drawbridge. It also provides access to this viewpoint where all three bridges are visible, lines leading to the castle in its magnificent central point. 

The river crossing has always been a problematic barrier on the long journey from London to Holyhead, hence the three bridges here in Conwy. Once, accessing the walled town, majestically guarded by Edward’s castle, would have involved a ferry crossing. Then, in 1826, Telford’s beautiful suspension bridge made the road crossing possible, followed some 25 years later, by Robert Stephenson’s tubular railway bridge. Both engineering masterpieces and both now grade 1 listed, the former graces the crossing while the latter has, in my opinion, little aesthetic merit. And then, in 1958, the gracious spans of Telford’s cables were further hidden by the new road bridge, an ugly curve of metal now marking the divisions between river and harbour, leaving the suspension bridge sandwiched in the middle, with heritage status and National Trust care. 

By 1991, of course, the Conwy Tunnel opened to take the ever increasing A55 traffic away from Conwy’s narrow streets, meaning those endless traffic queues would be consigned to history. 

Thanks to RSD photography for hosting