Viaducto de Loa Viaducto de Conchi Conchi, Antofagasta, Chile
336 feet high / 102 meters high 80 foot span / 24 meter span
Image by D. Rios. Referred to as either the Loa River or Conchi
Viaduct, this 336 foot (102 mtr) tall towering trestle was the
second highest railroad bridge in the world upon its opening in
1888. Only France’s Garabit Viaduct was higher at 407 feet (124
mtrs). Ironically, just two years later, Chile would open a
railroad bridge nearly as high over the Malleco River. More than
a century later, the Malleco is regarded as Chile’s greatest
work of bridge engineering while few even know of the Conchi
Viaduct. Part of that is due to the bridge’s remote location in
the flat, barren desert of the remote Antofagasta province of
Chile and part of it is due to the trestle’s abandonment in 1914
when a realignment bypassed the bridge. The spindly trestle is
also less of an engineering achievement than Malleco with
business-as-usual box towers and simple girder spans of 80 feet
(24 mtrs). Today, the b