 It was built in 1796 to carry the Shrewsbury Canal across the River Tern near Longdon-on-Tern in Shropshire.The aqueduct was opened one month after Benjamin Outram's cast iron Holmes Aqueduct on the Derby Canal, the world's first cast iron canal aqueduct.Since the closure of the Shrewsbury Canal in 1944, the aqueduct has been disused.