It takes a modern-day diesel locomotive less than a minute to traverse the Ribblehead Viaduct, a brief instant of time which gives no inkling of the four years of backbreaking work which went into its construction. The bulk of railway building in the 1800s had to be done by hand, a task that was performed by the "navvies" - a name given to the working classes who dedicated their lives to construction during the Industrial Revolution. Thousands of miles of line were laid by the navvies without the use of complex machinery, a highly labour intensive process. Hundreds of these people lost their lives building the Ribblehead Viaduct, from a combination of accidents, fights, and smallpox outbreaks in the community that arose around the area during construction. The loss of life was so great that the railway company paid for an expansion of the local graveyard in Chapel-le-Dale. In many ways, the viaduct can be viewed not just as a piece of infrastructure but as a monument to the determined will and stoical effort of Victorian engineers who wrought these awesome arches. Click here for an aerial view of where this picture was taken.