The Fades viaduct (French: Viaduc des Fades) is a railway bridge spanning the Sioule River in the Puy-de-Dôme department of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in central France. Constructed between 1901 and 1909, it was designed by engineers Félix Virard and Frantz Bonnet to carry the Lapeyrouse–Volvic railway line.
Upon its inauguration on October 10, 1909, the Fades viaduct was the tallest bridge in the world and remained the tallest in France until the completion of the Millau Viaduct in 2004. It reaches a height of 132.5 meters (approximately 435 feet) from the riverbed to the rails.
The structure consists of a continuous steel lattice girder with a total length of 470.25 meters (1,542.8 feet). This girder is supported by two massive masonry piers, which were the tallest of their kind at the time of construction, standing at over 92 meters (302 feet) high. The central span of the bridge measures 144 meters (472 feet).
The viaduct was designated as a monument historique (national heritage site) by the French Ministry of Culture in 1984. Railway traffic on the line crossing the bridge was suspended in 2007 due to safety concerns regarding the aging infrastructure, though the bridge remains a notable landmark for industrial architecture and engineering.
