Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Nakagawa (中川大橋) Bridge

March 2012 (35.688 Degrees, 139.847 Degrees) Nakagawa Bridge

After photographing the Hesei Bridge, we turned north to complete our loop around Koto Ward. The final bridge on our canoe trip was the Nakagawa Bridge, a continuous steel three span river crossing. It is 441 ft long. 93.5 ft wide, and built in 1988. In the Google earth photo below, we see it is just south of a utility bridge and further south of the big Higashi Ojima Train Station near where our journey began.

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Nakagawa (中川大橋) Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Hesei (平成橋) Bridge across the Naka Gawa

March 2012 (35.685 Degrees, 139.846 Degrees) Hesei Bridge

As we paddled east from the Onagi into the Nakagawa, I took a quick photograph to the south of the Hesei (平成橋) Bridge, a single span tied arch structure with 'I' girder hangers and box girder arch ribs. This bridge was built in 1994 and spans 105 meters across the Nakagawa. 


The bridge acts as an evacuation route, perhaps from floods. Note in the Google Earth photo below that it is the last bridge across the Nakagawa before the Arakawa Flood Gates.  

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Hesei ((平成橋) ) Bridge across the Naka Gawa by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Bansho Bridge (番所橋) across the Onagi Gawa

March 2012 (35.686 Degrees, 139.845 Degrees) Bansho Bridge

We are rapidly approaching the eastern end of the Onagi Canal. In the background is the confluence of the Kyu Nakagawa and the Onagigawa. This is also the setting for another woodblock print by Hiroshige.


One Hundred Famous Views of Edo #60: Mouth of the Naka River shows the confluence of the Nakagawa and the Onagigawa.  The print provides the same view as my photo (only from higher up). Hiroshige is looking east from the Onagigawa at the Nakagawa (the Shinkawa in the distance no longer exists). The spot on the lower left is called a 'bansho' or the point where the boats could dock and hence the name of the Bansho Bridge. 


If I were to continue traveling around Kanto photographing bridges, we would eventually see the location of most of the 100 (actually 116) famous views of Edo (only 150 years later).

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Bansho Bridge (番所橋) across the Onagi Gawa by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.