Osaka Prefecture, Japan Bridges: Yodogawa Bridges

November 2013 (34.6981 Degrees, 135.4718 Degrees) Yodogawa Bridges

The 808 bridges of Naniwa (Osaka) was so named because of its many rivers and many river crossings. Therefore, my last two blogs are about a few of the bridges that cross Osaka's rivers.

The Yodogawa is about half a mile wide and it's crossed by many beautiful bridges. The Yodogawa Ohashi (see photo above) is an elegant bridge built in 1926. It carries the Hanshin Route 2 with steel girder spans for the approach and Warren truss spans in the middle of the river.  It is supported on squat pier walls.

Connector ramps are being built on both sides of the Hanshin (Kobe) Route 3 Bridge (see photo above). All the superstructures are steel box girders and the substructures are big pier walls.

Between the Hanshin Route 2 and Route 3 Bridges is the Hanshin Mainline Railway Bridge composed of Warren Truss spans over the river. In the photo above we can see a Hanshin Express Model 8234 Electric Motorized Train (the cars have a red top and beige bottom) heading into Yodogawa Station. All the trains are instantly recognizable because of their distinctive colors.

In the Google earth photo above we can see the three bridges we just studied are near the mouth of the Yodogawa. The last bridges are the Denpo and Shin Denpo Bridges and the Hanshin (Wangan) Route 5 Bridge just beyond the river's mouth in Osaka Bay with two basket-handle arches along its length.

Osaka Prefecture, Japan Bridges: Yodogawa Bridges by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Niigata Japan's Bridges: Utility Bridges across the U River (2)

August 2007 (37.360 Degrees, 138.550 Degrees) Utility Bridges

More photos of the utility bridges across the U River just upstream of the Highway 8 Bridge. It looks like these utility truss bridges carry a variety of pipes and cables. We don't seem to have as many in California. Instead, the utility companies put their pipes, cables, etc into our highway bridges. The utility companies must keep a bunch of these truss members available in different lengths to cross over rivers. 

As we traveled inland, the river lost its high levees and slope paving. We have also traveled past most of the damage from the 2007 earthquake.

Niigata Japan's Bridges: Utility Bridges across the U River (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Niigata Japan's Bridges: Utility Bridges across the U River (1)

August 2007 (37.360 Degrees, 138.550 Degrees) Utility Bridges

We are slowly traveling out of the city and into the countryside. In the photo above I'm standing on the Highway 8 bridge looking upstream at the U River, two utility bridges, and at distant mountains. Both bridges are composed of Warren trusses that are firmly anchored to abutments and a hammerhead bent.

Niigata Japan's Bridges: Utility Bridges across the U River (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.