Note 17

Removing the high spots in the channel

The short working period between tides interupted by commercial traffic not only rendered this an extremely troublesome, and therefor expensive proceedure, but the rocky bottom would have involved the extensive use of explosives, and permission to conduct such an operation so close to the footings of Stephenson's Britannia Railway Bridge - the only rail link to Anglesey and the Holyhead Irish ferry - was quite unlikely to have been granted.