Miyagi, Japan's Bridges: Sakuragawa Railway Bridge (1)

March 2012 (38.691, 141.488) Sakuragawa Railway Bridge    

Continuing north on Route 45 into Shizuhama. In the background is the Sakuragawa Railway Bridge that was left stranded when the waves washed away the embankments. We are in one of many bays along the Pacific where all the buildings are gone and abandoned a year after the earthquake.

I'm particularly bad about photographing people's backsides including this shot of Prof. Saiidi from UN Reno shot on a camera with the lens wet from the rain and snow that was falling.

You can see that sections of the railway bridge are still standing over the various obstacles (river, highway, local road) while the rail, ballast, and embankment are gone. What to do with these railroads now that the no one lives here is still being decided.

Miyagi, Japan's Bridges: Sakuragawa Railway Bridge (1) by Mark Yashisnky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Miyagi, Japan's Bridges: Bridges over the Hachiman River

March 2012 (38.675 Degrees, 141.448 Degrees) Highway 221 Bridge

A photo of the Hachiman River in downtown Minami Sanriku one year after the Tohoku Earthquake. We are looking downstream at the floodgates that were closed before the tsunami but overtopped the adjacent seawalls and flooded the city. Most of the people who sought shelter in nearby tsunami evacuation buildings were drowned. However, none of the bridges were seriously damaged.

Miyagi, Japan's Bridges: Bridges over the Hachiman River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Niigata, Japan's Bridges: Agano River Bridge

August 2007, Agano River Bridge

My last photo from Niigata Prefecture is of a bridge being constructed across the wide Agano River. I couldn't find my notes and so I'm not sure exactly where this photo was taken. However, it's such a pretty scene, I couldn't resist including it in my posts of Niigata Prefecture. If anyone recognizes this location, please let me know.

Tomorrow we will begin an exploration of Northern Miyagi and Southern Iwate Prefectures after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Niigata, Japan's Bridges, Agano River Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.