The Crumlin Viaduct is a railway bridge in Crumlin,

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

. It has the distinction of being the only place in Ireland where a train, plane, car, and boat can theoretically cross paths, due to its unique status of being a railway bridge straddling a road bridge across a river, with

Belfast International Airport Belfast International Airport is an international airport northwest of Belfast in Northern Ireland, and is the main airport for the city of Belfast. Until 1983, it was known as Aldergrove Airport, after the nearby village of Aldergrove, Cou ...

two kilometres to the north.

History

The railway line through Crumlin opened in 1871, crossing the Crumlin River by means of a simple lattice girder bridge. This was replaced in 1915 with the current structure, a

Pratt truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

. The original was reused at

Adelaide railway station Adelaide railway station is the central Terminal station, terminus of the Adelaide Metro railway system. All lines approach the station from the west, and it is a terminal station with no through lines, with most of the traffic on the metropol ...

in Belfast. The current viaduct was designed and built by James Findlay & Co. of Motherwell, Scotland. Passenger traffic ceased in 1960. The bridge was reinforced in the early 1970s to prepare for the reintroduction of passenger traffic, in 1974. It then carried trains between Derry, Antrim, Lisburn and Belfast until 2003, when the passenger service ceased once again.

Today

The viaduct, along with the rest of the Lisburn - Antrim line, has lain mothballed since 2003, though both are maintained to an operational level and used for engineering trains, driver training, and diversionary passenger services when the line between Belfast and Antrim via Whiteabbey is closed. The possibility of the line, and thus the viaduct, being brought back into regular use for a circular Belfast - Antrim - Lisburn passenger service has been considered for some years.

Popular culture

It appeared in the BBC series 'Walk The Line' in 2015.

References

{{coord, 54.6232, -6.2128, display=title Railway bridges in Northern Ireland Bridges in Northern Ireland Buildings and structures in County Antrim