Note 181 — Chapter XIV · DOCK AND PIER WORKS. A.D. 1831—1859. ÆTATIS 26—54.

In the year 1856 and afterwards, Mr. Brunel was engaged in improving the navigable channel of the river Neath, at its embouchure into the Bristol Channel. A bank of furnace slag, for directing the course of the river, had been made previously by Mr. Palmer, and continued as far seawards as it was then thought could be done with safety. Mr. Brunel carried a training bank still farther, and succeeded in cutting off a bend of the river; Mr. Brereton has since extended the navigable channel in a straight line to low-water mark, a distance of two miles; and the bar has been lowered to within 1 foot of the level of the dock sill.