This bridge was preserved to honor the working memory of the miners in Gaude.
Description
Marked with the acronym of the company that built it, AFC, it allowed the transport and surface disposal of waste, along the railway line, on the other side of the Chemin du Moulin Neuf. This waste constituted the station slag heap (called a spoil heap elsewhere) of some 260,000 cubic meters. It was dismantled in 2004.
Silhouettes of miners push a wagon toward the slag heap... Frescoes appear on both sides of the bridge. This complex was inaugurated in 2013.
In 1836, six mining concessions were inventoried within the commune, all in the foothills of the Luberon. The Gaude concession covered 146 hectares and employed up to 270 workers. Access was from Gaude, 4 km north of the town center.
The extracted lignite went to the Sainte-Tulle electrothermal power station operated at the time by EELM (Energie Electrique du Littoral Méditerranéen), now EDF, or to the AFC (Alais Froges et Camargue) chemical plant in Saint-Auban, which would become Pechiney and then Arkema.
A tunnel connected the Gaude pithead to the station pithead to carry the wagons. The ore was sorted at the station pithead between 1928 and 1965. The mine closed in 1965.
Rates / opening
Prices
Free access.
Opening
From January, 01 to December, 01, open daily.