Owing to the very extensive intercourse which now subsists between Great Britain and Ireland, the town has, within the last few years, rapidly increased in extent and improved in appearance. From its advantageous situation, it has been selected as the principal station of the post-office packets, for conveying the mails to Dublin; and among other improvements, a new line of road has been constructed under the walls of the town, along the margin of the traeth, or sandy estuary, which forms the harbour, extending more than a mile along an artificial embankment, from the entrance of the town to the commencement of the pier. This pier extends from the small island, called Ynys Halen, or Salt Island, in an east south-easterly direction into the sea, and is 360 yards in length. It is connected with the main land by a handsome iron bridge of one arch, dividing the centre, and each part turning on a swivel to afford a passage on either side. Beyond this bridge are the engineer’s house, the custom house, the harbour-master’s offices, and the depôt for the post-office stores: further on is a grand triumphal arch, built by subscription of the gentry of the county of Anglesey, to commemorate the circumstance of the royal squadron having anchored in Holyhead bay, on the night of the 6th of August, 1821, and the landing of his majesty George IV. on the following day. The grand terminus of the Chester and Holyhead railway will be on the site of the present pier, and it has been resolved by government to make a packet station and harbour of refuge, equal to the wants of the whole Irish channel, and upon a most extensive and magnificent scale, from designs made by the celebrated engineer, Mr. Rendel. When the railway and harbour improvements are completed, the transit between London and Dublin will be accomplished in thirteen hours.
The triumphal arch, which was opened in August, 1824, is a chaste and elegant structure of Mona marble, brought from the Red-wharf Quarry, and consists of a central carriage way, separated on each side by two handsome pillars of the Doric order from a footway, enclosed by a wall ornamented at the extremities with antæ of correspondent character, the whole twenty feet high, and supporting a boldly projecting cornice, surmounted by three diminishing tiers of masonry, forming a platform. Over the carriage-way, on each side, is a large entablature, respectively bearing inscriptions in Welsh and Latin, commemorative of the event.