Anyone want to Guess

[Sarkus]

I did not realize there were so many in the area. I'm a little embarrassed to admit when I first saw it while watching the show I mistakenly thought it an aqueduct from the Roman days. Then I figured out viaducts were for trains.

Me too. The term "viaduct" as a train bridge is not commonly used anymore, at least in the US.

 

[Marianna]

I did not realize there were so many in the area. I'm a little embarrassed to admit when I first saw it while watching the show I mistakenly thought it an aqueduct from the Roman days. Then I figured out viaducts were for trains.

Aqueducts still carry canals over rivers or over deep valleys. Where the river is navigable for shipping, for instance the Irwell at Barton-Upon-Irwell, Greater Manchester, the canal aqueduct can be closed off at each end to retain the water, then swung so that it's parallel to the river, providing enough clearance for large ships to pass along the river. The road bridge next to the aqueduct works the same way. There's an artificial island in the middle of the river for the mechanical apparatus that operates both the road bridge and the aqueduct.

I was taken there and to the one over the very deep river valley near Marple on a 3-day canals history tour several years ago.

 

[barmpot]

Viaducts are very common around here, there is even one or two disused ones right in the middle of Leeds. One closed over 50years ago still has the remains of an old semaphore signalling post (a splitting distant I recall) standing there if you know where to look. One or two have become public rights of way and can walk along them with superb views over the surrounding countryside.