Qualla: Crumlin Viaduct

Crumlin Viaduct: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager, Public domain. "When eternity looks you straight in the face, you may as well go at full speed to meet it!" Those were the words of John Thomas Jenkins -- known as "Mad Jack" -- the locomotive driver who raced across the untested Crumlin Viaduct in 1857, having first visited every pub in the village. He had been told to cross slowly. He chose otherwise. The engineers were furious, but Mad Jack's bravado captured something essential about this structure: it was built by people who refused to be intimidated by scale.

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Image: Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager | Public domain

Crumlin Viaduct: Iron Ambition over the Ebbw

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. At 200 feet high and 1,650 feet long, the Crumlin Viaduct was the tallest railway viaduct in Great Britain throughout its entire working life. Built to carry the Taff Vale Extension of the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway across the Ebbw River, it was also celebrated as ...

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Image: Public domain

Crumlin Viaduct: A Costly Giant

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ben Brooksbank, CC BY-SA 2.0. Lady Isabella Fitzmaurice formally opened the viaduct on Whit Monday, 1 June 1857. What followed was a century of constant maintenance battles. The location proved susceptible to high winds, just as the engineer Liddell had predicted, and the resultant swaying demanded expensive ...

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Image: Ben Brooksbank | CC BY-SA 2.0

Crumlin Viaduct: Hollywood's Brief Cameo

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kennard, T. W., fl. Ca. 1860 J. Newman & Co, Public domain. Between the line's closure and the viaduct's demolition, something unexpected happened. Universal Pictures arrived in the valley to shoot scenes for the 1966 film Arabesque, starring Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck. The abandoned viaduct, still towering above the village with its t...

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Image: Kennard, T. W., fl. Ca. 1860 J. Newman & Co | Public domain

Crumlin Viaduct: What Remains

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Martin Ridley, Public domain. Demolition by Bird's of Swansea began in June 1965 and took nine months, requiring a Bailey bridge to assist the work. The iron parts were completely dismantled by the end of 1967. Today, only the stone and cast concrete abutments remain visible on the valley sides, barely hintin...

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Image: Martin Ridley | Public domain