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The Viaduct of Moresnet, also known as the Geul Valley bridge is a railway bridge above and on the southern side of the village of Moresnet, within the municipality of Plombières, close to the three way Belgian frontier with Germany and the Netherlands. The bridge crosses the Geul Valley. It is a Truss bridge with a maximum height above the valley floor of around and a length of . Viewed from a horizontal plane the railway line at this point has a gradient of 1.8‰. Viewed from above, approximately a quarter of the bridge is on a slight bend: this has a radius of 〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Der Göhltalviadukt bei Moresnet )〕 The Geul Valley bridge was built during the First World War, at a time when, since 1914, Belgium had been under German military occupation. It was built to support the strategic objective of being able to move troops and artillery rapidly between Aachen and Antwerp.〔"Les Noeuds ferroviaires des 3 Frontières", A. Stassen〕 More recently, by the 1990s it had fallen into such disrepair that trains crossing it were restricted to a maximum speed of 20 km/h (12 mph). During the early years of the twenty-first century, however, the bridge was extensively reconstructed and restored. ==Structure== The bridge comprises 22 twin track bridge-deck sections〔 together with 2 abutments at the ends. The deck sections are supported by five stone support pillars and sixteen tamped concrete pillars, manufactured using a technique that was new at the time of the viaduct's construction. Each bridge-deck section is long〔 and weighs approximately 260 tons. The combined length of the 22 sections is . If the lengths from the ends of the abutments to the first pillar at each end is added, the total length becomes . Before the construction of the high speed line connecting Brussels to Paris, the Viaduct of Moresnet was listed as Belgium's longest rail bridge. Five of the support pillars are thicker and stronger than the others in order to accommodate the additional stresses caused by trains braking or accelerating. The Montzen line, of which the Geul Valley bridge is part, was designed for military transport and has subsequently been used as a freight route. The gradients in the region mean that heavier trains on this stretch of the line frequently use two locomotives. It is the extra traction cost resulting from the use of a second locomotive that usually persuades operators to send the heaviest trains along alternative routes. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Viaduct of Moresnet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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