Glenfinnan Viaduct

The Glenfinnan Viaduct, however, was complete enough by October 1898 to be used to transport materials across the valley. It was built at a cost of £18,904. A long-established legend attached to the Glenfinnan Viaduct was that a horse had fallen into one of the piers during construction in 1898 or 1899. In 1987, Professor Roland Paxton failed to find evidence of a horse at Glenfinnan using a borescope inserted into boreholes in the only two piers large enough to accommodate a horse. In 2024, following more than six years of planning, repair work on the structure began, with an expectation of the work completing in less than 12 months. ==Design==

The viaduct is built from mass concrete, and has 21 semicircular spans of . It is the longest concrete railway bridge in Scotland at , and crosses the River Finnan at a height of . The West Highland Line it carries is single track, and the viaduct is wide between the parapets. The concrete used in the Glenfinnan Viaduct is mass concrete, which unlike reinforced concrete does not contain any metal reinforcement. It is formed by pouring concrete, typically using fine aggregate, into formwork, resulting in a material very strong in compression but weak in tension. ==Services==

The West Highland Line connects Fort William and Mallaig, and was a crucial artery for the local fishing industry and the Highland economy in general, which suffered enormously after the Highland Clearances of the 1800s. The line is used by passenger trains operated by ScotRail between Glasgow Queen Street and Mallaig, with Class 153 and Class 156 diesel multiple units. In the summer, West Coast Railways operates The Jacobite steam train along the line. It is a popular tourist event in the area, and the viaduct is one of the major attractions of the line. The Royal Scotsman also operates on the line. ==Depiction==

The Glenfinnan Viaduct features on some Scottish banknotes. The 2007 series of notes issued by the Bank of Scotland depicts different bridges in Scotland as examples of Scottish engineering, and the £10 note features the Glenfinnan Viaduct. The Glenfinnan Viaduct has attracted increased fame beyond Scotland as a filming location for the Harry Potter film series, featuring in four of the films. Thus, the viaduct is sometimes referred to as "The Harry Potter Bridge". The association has led to hundreds of thousands more tourists each year, a significant strain on the hamlet of Glenfinnan and its vicinity. After its appearance in Harry Potter, British Transport Police had to warn fans not to walk on the viaduct after a handful of close calls between pedestrians and trains had occurred. ==See also==