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Viaduct of Moresnet

Bridges completed in 1916Bridges in BelgiumBuildings and structures in Liège ProvincePlombièresRail transport in Belgium
Railway bridges in BelgiumTruss bridgesViaducts
Geultalviadukt aus SO von der Rue de Viaduct in Moresnet
Geultalviadukt aus SO von der Rue de Viaduct in Moresnet

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 52 metres (171 ft) and a length of 1,107 metres (3,632 ft). 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 1,600 metres (5,249 ft)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. 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.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Viaduct of Moresnet (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Viaduct of Moresnet
RAVeL 39 Moresnet Gemmenich,

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Wikipedia: Viaduct of MoresnetContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 50.718611111111 ° E 5.9825 °
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Address

RAVeL 39 Moresnet Gemmenich
4850
Liège, Belgium
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Geultalviadukt aus SO von der Rue de Viaduct in Moresnet
Geultalviadukt aus SO von der Rue de Viaduct in Moresnet
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Kelmis
Kelmis

Kelmis (German pronunciation: [ˈkɛlmɪs]; French: La Calamine, French pronunciation: ​[la kalamin]) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège, named for the historical deposits of calamine (zinc ore) nearby. As of 2011, the population was 10,881; the area is 18.1 square kilometres (7.0 sq mi) and the population density is 601.2 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,557/sq mi).The municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities: Kelmis proper, Hergenrath, and Neu-Moresnet. The territory around the Vieille Montagne zinc mine in Kelmis was Neutral Moresnet, a neutral condominium of the Netherlands and Prussia (later Belgium and Germany) from 1816 to 1919, with the Mayor of Kelmis nominated by two commissioners from the neighbouring countries. Although there were attempts by locals at making it evolve into a fully independent microstate, all of them were thwarted and it remained under double-sovereignty and neutrality until its eventual annexation by Belgium after the First World War. There is a war memorial to German soldiers from Kelmis who were killed during the Franco-Prussian War, located in the Aachener Strasse, and one to inhabitants of Kelmis who were killed in the First and Second World Wars, located in the Kirchplatz (French: Place de l'Église).A small museum in Kelmis, the Museum Vieille Montagne, includes exhibits on Neutral Moresnet. Of the 60 border markers for the territory, more than 50 are still standing.In the nineteenth century a Low Dietsch dialect was spoken in Kelmis. Today Kelmis is German-speaking. It has facilities for French speakers and is one of the nine municipalities of the German‑speaking Community of Belgium.