Abandoned Usui Pass 3rd Bridge (Megane Bashi)

Date: 17 October 2016

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The Usui Pass 3rd Bridge, also known as Megane Bashi is an abandoned red-brick bridge dating back to 1893. It was previously part of a railway between the Gunma and Niigata prefectures for steam locomotive trains. The bridge was kinda built hastily and was abandoned 70 years later when electronic trains were introduced.

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The appearance of a red-brick bridge in Japan looks so out of place that it intrigued me enough to drive down the winding roads to reach this place.

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You can walk on the bridge

There is a 6 km walking trail called the “Abt Road” which allows you to walk the old railway of Usui Pass between Kumanotaira and Yokokawa. The walking trail includes passing through tunnels which I find eerie. I only knew about this walking trail upon reading the signs around the bridge, thus this walk will need to wait for another day.

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Lets do the walk another day

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The map below shows where this bridge is. There is a parking lot nearby where the bridge is only a 5 minutes walk away.

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