HELL'S VIADUCT

The structure was designed by Bauby and Boyer on the Béziers-Neussargues railway line. The Marvejols-Neussargues section, on which the Crueize viaduct is located, represents a textbook case for route selection in a challenging environment, due to steep-sided valleys. Léon Boyer proposed a route across the top of the plateau, which had the advantage of avoiding the construction of numerous secondary structures and limiting the project to a few major, even exceptional, structures, such as the Garabit viaduct, built by Eiffel and designed by Boyer on the same line. The Crueize viaduct (named after the stream it spans), nicknamed the "Viaduct of Hell" after the valley it crosses, was built in 1880. Of the arched bridge type, it has a total length of 219m, rises 63m above the water and has a maximum span of 25m. Put into service in 1887 by the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Midi et du Canal latéral à la Garonne, concessionaire of the line.