It is mostly residential, and contains three pubs, a primary school, a small local shopping area, a recreation ground, a library, two doctor's surgeries, and a youth centre.

Being a traditional long and narrow South Wales Valleys village, its potential for expansion is restricted by the river on its eastern side and the hillside to the west.

The construction of this viaduct, north of Energlyn, was thus crucial to the establishment of the busy coal port at Barry, which dealt with nearly 4000 ships a year at its peak.

That extension was short-lived however, and due to the railway grouping of 1922, being a duplicated route to the Rhymney valley, succumbed to closure on 4 August 1926 and was decommissioned.

The brick support piers of the Llanbradach viaduct were demolished by explosives and their remains left as unsightly heaps across the valley for many decades but ultimately were removed with the general modernisation of the highways in the area.

The line carried on southwards from Penrhos through Ty Rhiw, and on to the Walnut Tree Viaduct, of similar construction, which itself was largely dismantled in 1969.

As stated above, it was originally built, along with the Garth tunnel, for the Barry Railway's Penrhos Branch from a junction at Tynycaeau on the Cadoxton to Trehafod line, and the viaduct eased the uphill incline for empty coal wagon traffic between Tynycaeau Junction, the Taff Valley and Caerphilly but loaded down coal trains had to be partially braked, manually, over parts of the descent from Penrhos to Barry.

It housed the village library, a billiards room, possibly a boxing gym and for theatrical productions by the local Coed-Y-Brain school.

Meanwhile, the club that trains boys and girls from under 6 years of age and upwards maintained a high level of coaching for the young people of Llanbradach.