Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Kameko Bridge across the Kyu Nakagawa

March 2012 (35.696 Degrees, 139.847 Degrees) Kameko Bridge

Just north of the Sakai Bridges is the continuous three span steel girder Kameko Bridge on trapezoidal concrete piers. We can just see the very wide Shin Nakagawa Bashi in the distance, a three span concrete girder bridge on pier walls and seat-type abutments.

Note the pleasant walkway on the east side of the canal. This area hasn't become too industrialized and so it is still common to see people strolling along the canal.

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

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Sakai Bridges across the Kyu Nakagawa

March 2012 (35.695 Degrees, 139.848 Degrees) Sakai Bridges

Eventually we packed everything into the canoe and headed upstream. The water looked particularly viscous, which is something I've noticed before on Tokyo's canals. The tall Route 7 Metropolitan Expressway Viaduct and the short Sakai Bridges are just ahead. The continuous, steel box girders on the viaduct are able to cross the canal with a single span while the simple steel stringers supporting the Sakai Bridges required a couple of extra piers to get across the river.

I had recently purchased a waterproof camera with GPS (a Fuji), but I noticed that it used the previously obtained latitude and longitude if it lost its satellites. Also, it didn't have much of a lens, just a narrow piece of plastic at the top of the camera. However, it fit in my pocket and took decent photos.

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

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.