Menai Bridge Questions

Your Questions about the Menai Suspension Bridge

If you have any questions about the Menai Suspension Bridge, please contact the project. We will get back to you as soon as possible with an answer and will also publish answers on this page of the website.

Recent Questions

Is the Menai Bridge a toll-way? (from Staf Greenen)

The answer is simple, the bridge is no longer a toll road and anybody is free to cross the bridge. However, some larger buses cannot fit through the arches on the bridge or are too heavy, it is worthwhile checking if you were to take a bus across.

There was a toll to cross the bridge when the bridge first opened. This was abolished in 1941 when the bridge reopened after major reconstruction work. It has remained toll free since then and will remain toll free in the future.

Why were the old toll roads called turnpikes?

Some of the gates controlling access to the early toll roads consisted of a frame of vertical sharpened pikes. These were attached to a pole, which was rotated (“turned”) to open the gate. The last turnpike toll road to be abolished in Britain was our own local one at Llanfairpwll, in 1895. See this BBC report about the turnpikes.

In 2005 the royal mint issued a £1 coin and described the bridge as the Telford Bridge, is this the correct name? 

The usual name given for the Bridge is the Menai Suspension Bridge or Menai Bridge. However, the bridge is known by some people, especially locals, as the Telford Bridge in order to help differentiate between the Telford’s and Stephenson’s bridges.

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