Part 4, the Akashi Bridge

Date: 3/28/2017

Today was our lucky day for getting a great taxi driver, and the cabbie’s lucky day for landing a 3-hour fare! This was for the trip out to the Akashi Bridge from our hotel in Kobe. The Akashi Bridge was a target on this “best of” infrastructure tour: the longest single span of any bridge in the world, a.k.a. the longest suspension bridge in the world. Akashi is a smaller city – “smaller” is a relative term, because where Kobe ends and Akashi begins is a blurred line.

Anyway, as usual, the taxi driver spoke no English, so we employed a trick that we have picked up on: employ the English skills of the hotel door man to communicate with the taxi driver before you leave.

And off we went for Akashi … gorgeous day for photography: sunny with some nice cumulus clouds to decorate the sky.

The north approach to the Akashi Bridge is built for drama. You enter a very long tunnel that goes on for a LONG time, maybe 3 miles … in the dark going and going and going. Then … a blast of light and this monster suspension bridge is suddenly before your eyes with its towers that seem to reach halfway to heaven. Well, maybe heaven for an engineer!

In the attached photos, check out the size of the vehicles as they get close to one of the two huge towers … how the tower totally dwarf the vehicles.

 

Photo 1787, Akashi Bridge S tower, main span = 6,532′,
Towers = 932′ high (higher than 90-story building)

Our driver was a sweet older fellow who sensed what we were up to, and slowed way down when the vistas got good, like 60 kph when the speed limit on the bridge was 80 kph and everyone else was zooming by. Both of us blazed away with both cameras (our little pocket delight, Canon G7x Mk II, and big DSLR, my alter ego, the Canon 70D) with both stills and video. Can’t wait to get the videos on a big screen when we get back home!

On the far side, I had contemplated driving along a small local road on the south shore to get to the south end of the bridge for a good line looking north from under the bridge. But the taxi driver apparently knew of a good viewpoint that I had not picked up on in my research: a very nice formal observation point set up with a fantastic view of the bridge from the top of a hill at a shopping center. The cabbie went to park while we walked to the observation point and commenced to blaze away.

With that leg done, we crossed back over the bridge northbound, and circled around to a park on the NE abutment of the bridge where there is a lovely park and promenade, along with the rather odd sight of a couple of old unoccupied Victorian mansions sitting in the park out by themselves. This was the iconic view of the bridge that you see when you read about it. Nice park, families picnicking, lovers out for walks, and a couple practicing on their saxophones on a park bench!

 

Photo 1911, Old-mansions by the monster Akashi Bridge

We returned to Kobe via the older highway along the waterfront, getting back to the hotel in time for a nap and leisurely dinner at the hotel.  I later learned that there is a tour that takes you to the top of the south tower.  There is a catwalk on the lower deck of the bridge, that you walk out on, then catch an elevator to the top of the tower.  But alas, it did not start until later in the Spring, dang it.