Telford's Menai Suspension Bridge carries the A5 road over the Menai Strait. It was completed in 1826 and is a Grade I listed building.
Stephenson's Britannia Bridge was opened in 1850 to carry the Holyhead railway line. In 1970 it was severely damaged by a fire, caused by some boys playing in the bridge. It was subsequently rebuilt completely, and now carries the A55 road as well as the railway. The railway section reopened in 1972 and the road section opened in 1980.
Robert Stephenson was the son of the railway pioneer George Stephenson, who had recommended that a second bridge should be built rather than using Telford's bridge to carry the railway as well as the road.
Thomas Telford and Robert Stephenson are buried alongside each other in Westminster Abbey. The Abbey's website notes that Stephenson was "called the greatest engineer of the nineteenth century".
© Haydn Thompson 2017