Pontcysyllte, Wrecsam: It is a dreamlike experience to watch a narrowboat float in that impossible space between the treetopsThere is a shadow-life to things. From the iron rail at the edge of the aqueduct, the abyss plunges through trees down to the river. Low winter sunlight casts shadows of the piers (pillars) like the ribcage of some great creature straddling the gorge. This massive shadow seems to move, to have a life, an animus free of the stone and iron that make this wonder of the industrial age.At 38 metres above the River Dee, Pontcysyllte is the highest navigable aqueduct in the world. Its 18 piers span 307 metres, carrying the "stream in the sky" - the Llangollen canal - across the Vale of Llangollen. Yes, it is an engineering feat worthy of its Unesco world heritage site status, but it is not just the genius of engineers such as Thomas Telford that should be recognised, but the lives of all the workers and their families who toiled for years after the first stone was laid in 1795, a dangerous place where many died. Continue reading...
Country diary: Country diary: The strange tranquillity of an aqueduct
10. února 2022 9:45
Příroda
Celý článek: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/10/country-diary-the-strange-tranquillity-of-an-aqueduct
Zdroj: The Guardian
