Rhayader
in Victorian times
  Pen-y-Garreg dam in the Elan Valley  
 

This picture shows the newly constructed Pen-y-Garreg dam in the Elan Valley. Although this photograph was, like other dam pictures in this series, produced as a picture postcard this one shows some of the scars of the construction work.
The slopes on the left are covered with roads and tracks, some of which were used for railway lines during the building of the dam across the valley.

Many old coloured picture postcards like this one were made from black and white photographs coloured by hand with special inks, which is why the colours are not very bright !
Pen y Garreg
dam

early
1900s
Pen-y-Garreg dam
 

The road bridge over the Elan River in this picture was newly built when the photograph was taken.
The tracks at the top of the slopes on the right also carried railway lines, used during the building stage to carry materials further up the valley to the site of the 'top dam' at Craig Goch.
Nowadays all the slopes shown here are thickly covered with trees, and the road from the bridge to the top of Pen-y-Garreg dam could not be seen at all from this viewpoint.

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