The Garabit viaduct () is a railway arch bridge spanning the Truyère, near Ruynes-en-Margeride, Cantal, France, in the mountainous Massif Central region.
The bridge was constructed between 1882 and 1884 by Gustave Eiffel, with structural engineering by Maurice Koechlin, and was opened in 1885. It is in length and has a principal arch of span.
Background
By the late 1870s, Eiffel & Cie, the company founded by Eiffel in partnership with Théophile Seyrig, had established a place among the leading French engineering companies. Between 1875 and 1877, the company had built the Maria Pia Bridge over the
Douro at
Porto, and when the construction of a railway between
Marvejols and
Neussargues, both in
Cantal, was proposed, the work of constructing a
viaduct to cross the Truyère was given to Eiffel without the usual process of competitive tendering. That was at the recommendation of the state engineers since the technical problems involved were similar to those of the Maria Pia Bridge. Indeed, it was Eiffel & Cie's success with that project that had led to the proposal for a viaduct at Garabit.
Design and construction
The Garabit viaduct, which uses a
parabolic arch to support a single rail line across the gorge,
opened in November 1885. The crossing is long and weighs (metric) . It cost 3,100,000
to complete (roughly €80 million in 2023).
Rail traffic using the bridge causes a deflection (load displacement) of about , which was the same value as the one calculated by Eiffel. The bridge, which is above the river, had the world's longest arch when it was completed in 1884.
Until 11 September 2009, one regular daily Corail passenger train passed each way from Clermont-Ferrand to Béziers. However, the viaduct was closed when cracks were discovered in one of the Deep foundation.
In popular culture
In 1976, it was used to represent the condemned "Cassandra Crossing" bridge in the film
The Cassandra Crossing. In the film, the bridge is depicted as being unused and derelict for 30 or 40 years and is considered dangerous, to the extent that people living nearby moved away fearing it could collapse.
See also
-
List of bridges in France
External links
