Date: 17 October 2016
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.
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.
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.
The map below shows where this bridge is. There is a parking lot nearby where the bridge is only a 5 minutes walk away.
Leave a comment