Hengoed 16 Arch Viaduct - Maesycwmmer, Wales.
N 51° 38.813 W 003° 13.399
30U E 484548 N 5721788
Hengoed Viaduct is a disused railway bridge. The bridge crosses the Rhymney River and Valley, and is now used as part of the National Cycle Network, Route 47, located at Maesycwmmer, Wales.
Waymark Code: WMDXEJ
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/06/2012
Views: 1
"The Hengoed Viaduct is one of Wales’s most striking monuments of railway engineering. One of the oldest surviving viaducts of its type, an iconic landmark which has dominated the landscape of this Welsh Coal Mining Valley for over 150 years. Consisting of 16 arches towering 120 feet high at its highest point and over 850 feet long, the Hengoed viaduct is slightly curved, and constructed with Stone.
This major structure on the ex-Rhymney Valley line was built to carry the Taff Vale Railway probably designed by T. W. Kennard to Charles Liddell's specifications, the contractors employed to carry out the work were Messrs Rennie and Logan who began work on this masonry structure mid 1853. The Hengoed viaduct was the last major project for the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway to complete the "Taff Vale Extension" before the line was opened in 1858.
The Rail line closed in 1964, and the Bridge now carries the National Cycle Network Route 47, which runs over this impressive Viaduct, which spans the Rhymney River & Valley, this green traffic-free path through the valleys connects country parks and heritage sites.
The Rhymney Valley area has a rich industrial coal mining heritage with large areas of newly landscaped land, regenerated from old industrial workings. This regeneration of this post-industrial landscape has been successful - woodlands and wildlife are now returning to an area once black with coal dust and littered with waste from the mines."
The Co-ordinates were taken at the centre of the bridge
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