Dan Snow, known on social media as ‘The History Guy’, posted a video on Instagram of his visit to Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.
The historian is the creative director of History Hit, the company responsible for the hit podcast and documentary series.
“The highest canal in the world, built when Napoleon was on the throne of France,” he posted online along with a video of his visit to the aqueduct.
“A wonder of the world: Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, also the longest in Britain.
“I’m heading there soon for the History hit TV documentary…”
In a video accompanying the post, the historian said the aqueduct was “one of my favorite places in the world.”
Photographing himself in front of the aqueduct, he said: “This is one of the wonders of the world. This is the aqueduct at Pontcysyllte, on the outskirts of Llangollen in North Wales.
“It is the longest canal aqueduct in Britain, the tallest canal aqueduct in the world, and one of the original and best.”
“It’s covered in iron. Look at this, this bridge took about 10 years to plan and build, and was completed in 1805. It was during the Battle of Trafalgar, when huge wooden ships were fighting each other. And this 300 meter long aqueduct is 40 meters above the bridge.”At the bottom of the gorge is a 1.6 meter deep waterway for narrowboats to access, a valuable resource in North Wales. It was part of an incredibly ambitious program to link goods, commercial potential and mineral potential to North West England. To Liverpool.
“This was to connect North Wales to the great link between the River Severn and Liverpool. It was an incredibly ambitious infrastructure project, which has now been completed and is now a World Heritage Site.”
“This is one of my favorite places in the world.”