The Garabit Viaduct

The Garabit Viaduct is a French railway viaduct, an architectural structure on the Béziers to Neussargues line, providing a crossing over the Truyère Gorges, a tributary of the Lot River. It is located in the municipality of Ruynes-en-Margeride in the Cantal department.

In the 1870s, the expansion of the railway line was envisioned towards the south to connect Paris to Béziers. It took the ingenuity of Léon Boyer and Gustave Eiffel to conceive and build the Garabit Viaduct, linking the two banks of the river.

Inaugurated in 1888 on the Béziers-Neussargues line by the Compagnie du Midi, it bears witness to an era: the zenith of the railway in France. The architectural marvel, which was painted in ‘Gauguin Red’ in the late 1990s, spans 565 meters in length. It originally stood at 122 meters above the river (90 meters after the water level of the Truyère was raised due to the construction of a dam at Grandval).

Admired in the past and still today, it ranks among the most beautiful modern engineering monuments and is the second tallest viaduct in the world, behind the Millau Viaduct. Classified as a historic monument in 1965, it had to wait until 2017 to receive this designation.

The unique features of the Garabit Viaduct include

The civil engineer Léon Boyer, responsible for the study of establishing a railway line connecting the stations of Marvejols and Béziers through Neussargues, across the mountainous region of the Massif Central, faced a significant challenge: the need to cross the Truyère River.

It was the heyday of metal construction, which provided increased strength and lightness. Léon Boyer thus advocated for his idea: to cross the Truyère valley as high as possible using a metal viaduct. Beforehand, he took care to contact the Gustave Eiffel Company to inquire about the feasibility of using an arch. He then entrusted them with the construction and implementation.

The Garabit Viaduct rests on five piers, with the tallest one measuring 89.64 meters. The central arch is a parabolic arc with a span of 56.86 meters and a chord length of 165 meters. These substantial dimensions make this structure the largest one ever built in France at the time (3,254 tons).

The enemy is rust, so it’s necessary to protect these metal structures by applying a layer of paint that makes the metal impermeable to moisture. The chosen color, primarily matte red, stands out from the usual gray and adds an original touch.

Biography of Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923):

Alexandre Gustave Bonickhausen Eiffel, known as Gustave Eiffel, was born on December 15, 1832, in Dijon, France. He was a French engineer and industrialist.

From 1843 to 1850, he attended the Royal College of Dijon. In 1850, he left Dijon to enroll at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, preparing for the entrance exam to the École Polytechnique. However, he failed the oral examination and chose to attend the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris, from which he graduated in 1855. His initial specialization was in chemistry, but he later shifted his focus to metallurgy. After working for a few months at the Forges de Châtillon-sur-Seine, where his brother-in-law was the director, Eiffel met Charles Nepveu in 1856. Nepveu was an engineer specializing in railway equipment construction and a Parisian entrepreneur with expertise in metal construction. He was also a pioneer in the use of compressed air in drilling and had close connections with the Pereire brothers.

From 1843 to 1850, he attended the Royal College of Dijon. In 1850, he left Dijon to enroll at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, preparing for the entrance exam to the École Polytechnique. However, he failed the oral examination and chose to attend the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris, from which he graduated in 1855. His initial specialization was in chemistry, but he later shifted his focus to metallurgy. After working for a few months at the Forges de Châtillon-sur-Seine, where his brother-in-law was the director, Eiffel met Charles Nepveu in 1856. Nepveu was an engineer specializing in railway equipment construction and a Parisian entrepreneur with expertise in metal construction. He was also a pioneer in the use of compressed air in drilling and had close connections with the Pereire brothers.

The meeting with Charles Nepveu, an entrepreneur specialized in metal construction, in 1856 was crucial for Eiffel. Several projects by the young engineer Eiffel were selected in bridge construction tenders. When Nepveu’s company was absorbed by the Compagnie générale des Chemins de fer, he promoted his protege, recognizing Eiffel’s precision and his willingness to take on challenges.

At the age of twenty-six, bolstered by his early successful experiences, Eiffel decided to establish his own company. In 1866, he acquired the Pauwels Metal Construction Workshops located in Levallois-Perret. The company then received several major contracts for the construction of viaducts and buildings with metal structures or frameworks, which solidified his reputation not only in France but also worldwide.

The young entrepreneur outperformed his competition through the extreme precision of his projects, each meticulously designed piece by piece in his workshops to be easily assembled on the construction sites. Additionally, he developed and perfected technical innovations that not only made his structures quicker to build but also more cost-effective.

Biography of Léon Boyer (1851-1886):

Léon Boyer was a graduate of the École Polytechnique and a civil engineer from the Ponts et Chaussées (Bridges and Roads). He was born in Florac in 1851.

He studied at the Lycée de Lyon and excelled, ranking among the top students at the École Polytechnique, where he became one of the most brilliant students. After graduating from the École des Ponts et Chaussées (School of Bridges and Roads), he was quickly appointed as an engineer in Marvejols, in his home department of Lozère. Tasked with studying the railway line from Marvejols to Neussargues, he demonstrated exceptional talent in overcoming the highly challenging terrain and successfully completed numerous remarkable engineering works.The Garabit Viaduct, for which he was the author, drew attention from the industrial world. This monumental work, executed by Gustave Eiffel, stands as one of the most beautiful and significant metal constructions. Following the completion of the Marvejols to Neussargues railway, Léon Boyer moved to Paris and was soon attached to the railway division at the Ministry of Public Works.