Post by washi on Apr 4, 2015 23:29:25 GMT
A few days ago I was momentarily surprised when, while admiring the 3D buildings in the western part of Osaka, I spotted what appeared to be a graceful taiko drum bridge. I was puzzled because it was made of steel, was much too large, didn't quite make it all the way across the river, and had no roads approaching from either side. I don't get into that area very often. When I do, I often admire the beauty of many of the bridges. This structure, although it looked very elegant in the Google Earth model, was obviously not a bridge.
It didn't take me too long to guess, and then confirm, that it was a water gate, designed to protect the upstream areas from flooding from storm surges and tsunamis. (Experts are projecting that there will be a major earthquake in the Nankai "South Sea" Fault, similar in strength to the one that caused the disaster in March of 2011, sometime in the next 30 years.) This is a matter of some consequence, because except for the Uemachi Plateau, most of the city is only slightly above or even below sea level.
