Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Momiji and Sakura Bridges across the Kyu Nakagawa

March 2012 (35.693 Degrees, 139.848 Degrees) Momiji and Sakura Bridges

I was staying a couple blocks from the Kyu Nakagawa and so as I crossed the Momiji Bridge I photographed the nearly identical Sakura Bridge on my way to meet Masa-san.

The Momiji and Sakura are very pretty pedestrian bridges. The river piers are stippled at the bottom and have a glistening patina on top. The girders are painted to match the nearby apartment buildings. The street lamps resemble fairy wings. The bridge decks are extravagantly tiled. The railing is supported by elements along the exterior girders that give the Sakura Bridge a ribbed appearance (the Momiji Bridge has unsupported railings). Although I typically prefer bridges with interesting structures, the purely visual elements on these bridges is quite charming.

These two bridges are part of a large circular track in the middle of Ojima-Komatsugawa Park. The whole area is quite lovely and shows the benefits of careful urban planning. They've planted cherry trees along the river and it must look incredible when the trees are in bloom (in April). We'll take another look at these bridges at the end of our canoe trip to show how nice they look from the river.

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Momiji and Sakura Bridges across the Kyu Nakagawa by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.