This French Bridge Took 24 Years to Build. It Was Never Used.

Описание: They spent 24 years building this bridge in the French Alps. Then they flooded the entire valley. Not a single train ever crossed it.
n 1909, France began building a railway line from Chorges to Barcelonnette through the French Alps. The biggest structure on that line was the Chanteloube Bridge.
Then history intervened.
WWI slowed construction to a crawl. German prisoners of war were brought in to keep it moving. The Great Depression drained momentum. And after the Stavisky scandal in 1934, the government halted new railway projects across the country.
The bridge was completed. The rails were never laid.
Not a single train crossed it.
Twenty years later, France made a different decision. The Durance River would be dammed. The valley would be flooded. Lac de Serre-Poncon was born.
And the bridge that was meant to symbolize progress disappeared beneath the water.
Today, most of the year, it remains partially submerged in Chanteloube Bay, in the Hautes-Alpes.
But every autumn and spring, when Lac de Serre-Poncon drops up to 15 meters, the Chanteloube Bridge rises again.
Locals call it the phantom bridge.
Fishermen say that on quiet nights, you can still hear the whistle of the train that never came.
We visited when the water was low enough to walk across it.
Here is what we found.
Filmed at Lac de Serre-Poncon, Chanteloube Bay, Hautes-Alpes, France.

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