The Vale of Neath Railway was begun in 1847 to link Merthyr Tydfil with the ports of Neath and Swansea and was completed to Merthyr in 1853. The engineer for the railway was Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859). The ‘Rhydycar Skew Bridge’ carried the railway on a high embankment across the Glamorganshire Canal, now the Taff Trail.
The Grade II Listed Building in Troed-y-rhiw, Merthyr Tydfil is listed as an unusually distinguished railway bridge by the foremost railway engineer of the mid-nineteenth century.
