A little further on we saw above us the celebrated Menai Bridge.  The piers are each one hundred and fifty three feet high, and five hundred and fifty three feet apart.  Sixteen iron chains, one thousand seven hundred and fifteen feet in length, pass from pier to pier, and support the bridge.  The chains have a dip in the centre of forty-four feet, thus allowing the roadway to have a clear elevation of a hundred feet above high-water at spring tide.  These sixteen chains are carried through sixty feet of solid rock.  The whole length of the bridge is about one-third of a mile, including four arches at one end, and three at the other, which carry the road out to the two suspending piers.  The bridge was opened in January, 1826.  It was designed by Thomas Telford, the engineer.  The work occupied six years, and cost 120,000 pounds,-- much less than an ironclad, and infinitely more useful and durable. Before it was built people had to cross by a dangerous ferry.  We were surprised to hear that the compensation given to the owners of the ferry for the surrender of their right amounted to 26,577 pounds--the annual income of the ferry being computed at 815 pounds 18 shillings.