“If I knew the c… that blew up the bridge…” The 7 e Company has nothing to do with it. In the early morning of June 15, 1940, it was the retreating French soldiers who dynamited two arches of the imposing Knutange railway viaduct to slow down the progress of the Reich army. The structure, which had already gone through two wars, will be quickly rebuilt by the Germans from 1941.
A landmark in the Fensch valley, also known as its motorway little brother built in Hayange 120 years later, the Knutange viaduct will soon be celebrating its 160th anniversary.
Built between 1860 and 1862 by the Belgian company of the Chemins de fer des Ardennes, the viaduct spans the valley and the Fensch at a height of 24 meters. 323 meters long, it has eighteen arches in yellow limestone, from the quarries of Neufchef.
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Tons of gold on the trains
Inaugurated under the government of Napoleon III on April 25, 1863, the Thionville-Sedan railway line, passing over the viaduct, made it possible in particular to transport the tonnes of gold paid by France to the German Reich as compensation war after the defeat of 1870-1871.
A second railway line was built there in the years 1901-1902.
After the Second World War and the Liberation, the viaduct found the intense traffic of the omnibus trains chartered to transport the personnel of the steel factories between the stations of Thionville, Knutange-Nilvange, Fontoy and Audun-Le-Roman. In 1955, the electrification of the line, made it possible to replace the steam locomotives by more powerful electric machines.
Until the 1990s, the Knutange viaduct will still see mainline trains such as London-Zurich pass, before being no longer dedicated to freight traffic.
