Viaduct à Mussy-sous-Dun en Saône-et-Loire

Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The viaduct of Mussy-sous-Dun is a railway bridge built in the last quarter of the 19th century, on the town of Mussy-sous-Dun, in Saône-et-Loire. It was designed to reduce congestion on the Lyon-Paris line by crossing the rugged reliefs of the Massif central, especially the Monts du Beaujolais. Its construction, awarded in January 1892, began in March of the same year, with the laying of the first stone on 18 June 1892. It was completed in August 1895 and allowed the passage of cargo and passenger convoys between Paray-le-Monial and Givors.

The viaduct is 60 metres high and 561 metres long, and has 18 arches in the middle of a 25 metre opening each. On 28 December 1984 it was listed as a historical monument for its architectural and technical importance. Located on the Paray-le-Monial–Givors-Canal line, it crossed a bottleneck of the valley before leaving room for a tunnel.

The purpose of the construction was to avoid too high a decline for heavy trains in an area marked by hilly landscapes. The viaduct, with its 75,000 m3 of materials, remains a major testimony of the railway engineering of the late nineteenth century in Burgundy-Franche-Comté.

External links