e were finally working under a
pressure of three atmospheres, or 45 lbs. to the square inch. The
contractors were the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Co. Ltd., of
Darlington. In 1906, and the following two or three years, the timber
portion of the viaduct was also completely renewed in the same material,
the contractor in this case being Mr. Abraham Williams of Aberdovey, who
had built, or helped to build, many of the old wooden bridges on the
coast line. The total cost of the renewals was approximately 60,000
pounds, and it is no small achievement that they were carried out without
a moment's stoppage in the traffic.

[Picture: Barmouth Bridge. Reproduced from the "Great Western
Magazine."]

But even the original viaduct, old-fashioned as it may seem now, was a
wonder in those days, and the fact that it carried (and still carries) a
footpath as well as the railway, provides Barmouth with a promenade
unrivalled in character and in range of panorama of river and mountains
and sea anywhere in this country. For a time before it was completely
finished a carriage was drawn over the bridge by horses, but in 1867 it
was opened for regular traffic, and in the first train which crossed it
into Barmouth rode the gentleman, who was under contract to make a meal
of the locomotive. If he had forgotten his rash undertaking, he was very
soon to receive a startling reminder. On safe arrival on the northern
shore, the story goes, he was politely escorted by an official to a table
laid for one, and was courteously requested to elect whether he would
have the engine roast or boiled. Alas! for the frailty of human nature,
more especially where a sense of humour might stand us in good stead.
The sceptic, disillusioned, is stated to have failed to appreciate the
joke!

Once the estuary was bridged, north of Barmouth, the constructional
problems were simpler of solution, and when the contractors reached
Minffordd, they were able to take advantage of an earlier engineering
enterprise, no less remarkable than any railway building. In former days
the sea had covered what is now called the Traeth, the broad valley of
the Glaslyn, stretching from the hillocks of Penrhyndeudraeth to
Moel-y-Gest, overlooking Portmadoc. The tides then surged several miles
up this vale, and washed the walls of Llanfrothen churchyard, while
vessels bore their freights almost up to Pont Aberglaslyn. In 1791 Mr.
Madock