Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Umaya Bridge across the Sumida River (1)

June 2011 (35.704 Degrees, 139.795 Degrees) Umaya Bridge

Continuing up the Sumida River we come to the Umaya Bridge. It is another wide, three span tied arch roadway bridge. However, unlike the skinny arches on the Sobu Railway Bridge, these arch ribs are deeper than the girders.

Ferry's used to cross at this point in the river until the first bridge was built here in 1875. The Umaya Bridge was named after the Shogun's horse stables that were just north of the bridge. The old bridge was replaced with the current one (by the City) after the 1923 earthquake.

This bridge has some nice architectural details such the big, ribbed newels at the ends (with stained glass windows on top) and the cross-bracing which consists of haunched girders between the arches and a laced arch connecting them. The giant Del Monte (canned vegetables) sign above the building on the west bank is another nice detail.

Tokyo, Japan's Bridges: Umaya Bridge across the Sumida River (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.