Victoria Viaduct & Penshaw Monument

Victoria Viaduct is one of those places that hides in plain sight. Built between 1836 and 1838 for the old Durham Junction Railway, it was a bold piece of early railway engineering — a sweeping sandstone structure designed to haul trains over the River Wear at a height that must have seemed daring at the time. For decades it formed a key route linking Sunderland, Durham, and the broader North East network, its 11 arches standing firm through all the industrial change that followed. Today it sits quiet, the rails gone, but the shape of the line and the workmanship of the arches still speak clearly of its Victorian ambition.

From the air, the landscape tells an even better story. Look beyond the viaduct and Penshaw Monument dominates the horizon — the unmistakeable Doric landmark built in 1844 in memory of the first Earl of Durham. If you’re from anywhere near Sunderland, you’ll know it as the landmark that anchors home, standing proud above the Wear Valley. Capturing both structures in one shot feels like stitching together two chapters of the region’s past: the railway age that reshaped the North East, and the monumental stone tribute that has watched over the valley ever since.