BANGOR (Celt., high choir). An episcopal city, municipal borough, and seaport town, in the northwest of Carnarvonshire, North Wales, great Britain, on the southeast bank of Menai Strait, 9 miles northeast of Carnarvon, and 60 miles west of Chester (Slap: Wales, B 3). The town stretches southwest through a fertile valley, and consists chiefly of a narrow, crooked street, a mile long, bounded on the south by a steep hill which has been laid out in pleasure grounds. It consists of and Lower Bangor. The grandeur and beauty of the surrounding scenery have long made it a favorite resort. Bangor is the oldest bishopric in Wales, founded in 550 by Saint Deiniol. The cathedral built by him was destroyed by the Saxons in 1071, rebuilt in 1102, and again destroyed by fire in 1402. The present edifice, built between 1496 and 1532. is a plain embattled cruciform structure 214 by 60 feet, with a pinnacle tower 60 feet high.
There are numerous educational institutions, in cluding the University College of North Wales, Independent, Baptist, and Normal colleges. The town has undergone much modern improvement. It was incorporated in 1883; has municipal water-works, gas and electric-lighting plants; maintains a free library, and hap erected artisans' dwellings. Its chief trade is derived from the great Penrhyn slate quarries, 6 miles distant, which employ over 3000 men. The slates are exported to all parts of the world, and are also manufactured (into tables, ehimney-pieces, etc. Two miles west of the city the Alenai Suspension Bridge, and Stephenson's famous Britannia Tu bular Bridge, one mile to the south, span the Menai Strait. Population, in 1891, 10,000; in 1901, 11,300.