Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Metropolitan Expressway Central Circular Route across the Sumida River

March 2012 (35.760 Degrees, 139.751 Degrees) Metropolitan Expressway

The next bridge is a double-deck viaduct (on single column bents!) that crosses the Sumida at a bend in the river and then runs parallel to the river until another bend separates them again. It's over a mile long and carries the Metropolitan Expressway across both rivers before connecting to the Kawaguchi Route along the north bank of the Arakawa. When I took this photo, I was standing on the southeast bank of the Sumida looking downstream to where the bridge crossed the river. I think I would have supported this viaduct on two column bents considering the high seismicity of the region.

I would have said this is an ugly bridge, but the many spectacular photos of the expressway, especially at night, have given me a new appreciation for Tokyo's elevated expressways.

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Metropolitan Expressway Central Circular Route across the Sumida River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.