Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Kuramae Bridge across the Sumida River (2)

June 2011 (35.701 Degrees, 139.793 Degrees) Kuramae Bridge

Another view of the Kuramae Bridge. Perhaps it is the broad width of the bridge that Sumiko Enbutsu found overwhelming in her book "The Sumida Crisscross." Round cutwaters are on both sides of the piers. Purely decorative or is the river subject to reversing currents with the tides? Whenever I visit Tokyo, I try to go on a canoe trip along its canals and rivers, but I've never noticed much of a current.

In the Google Earth View below, we get a better idea of this part of the Sumida River. The elevated Metropolitan Expressway is on the East Bank. Note the attractive pathway along the West Bank. Unfortunately, this path comes and goes without much warning, leaving you stranded.

The expansion joints are clearly visible on the Google Earth Photo. The current view is from 2009. However, a nice feature of Google Earth is that earlier photos are also available. For instance a photo from 1997 is also available just by clicking on the date in the box. The availability of bridge photos and text (and 'Street View') in Google Earth is rapidly making my blog obsolete!

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Kuramae Bridge across the Sumida River (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.