page_title: Crumlin Viaduct
section_title: Operations
hierarchical_section_title: Crumlin Viaduct / Operations
caption_attribution_description: Abstract: A view of Crumlin Vidauct showing a steam train on viaduct, another below, as well as the river and houses.
context_page_description: The Crumlin Viaduct was a railway viaduct located above the village of Crumlin in South Wales, originally built to carry the Taff Vale Extension of the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway across the Ebbw River.
  Hailed as "one of the most significant examples of technological achievement during the Industrial Revolution", in its 109 years of service until being dismantled in 1967, it remained: the least expensive bridge for its size ever constructed; the highest railway viaduct in the United Kingdom; the third highest viaduct in the world, after the aqueduct at Spoleto, Italy, and the timber viaduct in Portage, New York state.
context_section_description: The viaduct was opened on Whit Monday, 1 June 1857 by Lady Isabella Fitzmaurice, with the first train crossing the bridge and entering the Bryn Tunnel in June 1854, but it could not proceed further as Kennard's construction team had not yet finished the Hengoed Viaduct, which he had won the contract to design and act as civil engineer on. The final Crumlin viaduct, at 200 feet (61 m) high and 1,650 feet (500 m) across its two spans and ten trusses in length (1,066 feet (325 m) and 584 feet (178 m)), remained the highest railway viaduct in Great Britain throughout its working life. Nearby were the Crumlin railway stations, both at high (viaduct) and valley levels.
  As Liddell predicted, the location proved  to be susceptible to high winds and resultant swaying, resulting in continual expensive maintenance. The NA&HR route, due to a combination of its height and steepness, proved to be one of the most expensive railway lines in all of the UK to operate. It was therefore no surprise when, following the post-World War II nationalisation, British Railways reduced the entire extension line to single track  after 1947.
caption: Lithograph 1860
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