Let me continue from where I left off my post on November 10th. After watching the "animal parade" on the Tama Monorail line, I continued walking along Tama River towards upstream. The next railway track was Tamagawa Bridge on the JR East Chuo line.
Tamagawa Bridge was completed in 1889 by ex-Kohbu Railway. It was originally a single track, but, became a double track when a westbound track was added in 1937. The length of the bridge is 444 meters. The most notable point of this bridge is that locally made bricks were used for piers. They were manufactured by Hino Renga Company. This local company was established in 1887, and produced a total of 500,000 bricks in two and a half years. 200,000 of those were used for Tamagawa Bridge. Hino Renga Company unfortunately went out of business in 1891 due to the death of the president. It was a story during the early stages of Japanese modern industries after nearly 700 years of feudal times.
We can still see some brick piers under the eastbound track. They remain original features. I saw that commuter, freight and limited express trains crossed the river one after another. They were the EMU E233 series, the E353 series, electric locomotive Class EH200 and Class TaKi1000 oil tank cars. The locally made bricks from 133 years ago still support the mass transportation of the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Enjoying the riverside walking and studying the local history, I spent a great weekend again.
