Souleuvre Viaduct, Stone-pillar railway viaduct in Souleuvre en Bocage, Normandy, France
The Souleuvre Viaduct is a steel railway bridge that crosses a valley over 364 meters with five stone pillars supporting its span. The structure uses a steel truss design resting on massive stone foundations that create an elegant arc across the landscape.
Construction ran from 1887 to 1889 to plans by Gustave Eiffel's design office, and the viaduct opened on 12 November 1893 on the Caen–Saint-Lô–Vire line, carrying about 15 trains a day before the war. In 1944 Allied bombing damaged it without destroying it, and the Americans repaired it that August. The line closed in 1960; on 22 May 1970 the prefecture decided to dismantle only the metal deck, and after a farewell ceremony on 24 May work began on 1 June. Part of the deck collapsed the day before the planned 13 June explosion, injuring two workers; the remains were stored beside the piers until August 1972, leaving only the five granite pillars.
The site's name comes from the Souleuvre river it crosses, in the Suisse Normande area of the Norman bocage. Since 1990 the highest pillar has carried a bungee platform run by A. J. Hackett's company, and the site appeared in Cédric Klapisch's 1992 film Riens du tout. Night jumps are held, with jumpers asked not to shout.
Access to the bungee platform is via a 140 m suspended footbridge built in 1990 on the right bank of the Souleuvre, on the La Ferrière-Harang side, leading to a platform resting on one of the old pillars 61 m above the river. The site also holds a 1,000 m rail toboggan run added in 2013 and a barefoot sensory trail opened in 2016. The valley below the viaduct is part of the Bassin de la Souleuvre Natura 2000 site.
A glass platform called Skycube was added in 2022, letting visitors look straight down through a transparent floor from 61 meters high. This recent addition creates an unusual sensation of standing above the valley with nothing beneath you.
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