The westerly high-ground route across the Vale of Llangollen was chosen. A less expensive route was surveyed to the east, but the route chosen would have taken the canal through a mineral-rich area. It would have taken the canal through the coalfields of North-East Wales. However, only parts of the canal route were completed. The plan fell through because the money ran out. The capitalist system at the time was primitive and unreliable. Most major work on the canal stopped after the completion of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in 1805.