Craigmore Viaduct Craigmore Viaduct The Craigmore Viaduct () is a railway bridge near Bessbrook, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, known locally as the 18 Arches. (OS Grid ref: Jo628). Near Newry railway station. The bridge was designed by John Benjamin Macneill, an eminent Irish civil engineer, with construction beginning in 1849 for the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway. The bridge was formally opened in 1852. It spans the valley of Camlough River. The viaduct consists of 18 arches of 60 ft span, the highest being 126 ft, making Craigmore the tallest viaduct in Ireland. It is around a quarter of a mile long
Rio–Antirrio bridge and a pedestrian walkway. Its five-span four-pylon cable-stayed portion of length is the world's third longest cable-stayed deck; only the decks of the Jiaxing-Shaoxing Sea Bridge in Shaoxing, China and the Millau Viaduct in southern France are longer at 2,680 m (8,793 ft) and , respectively. However, as the latter is also supported by bearings at the pylons apart from cable stays, the Rio–Antirrio Bridge deck might be considered the longest cable-stayed "suspended" deck. This bridge is widely considered to be an engineering masterpiece, owing to several solutions applied to span the difficult site. These difficulties include deep water, insecure