Amarube Viaduct

You park at Michi-no-Eki Amarube, the roadside station on National Route 178 in the valley under the viaduct, and walk a few metres to the small lawn on its seaward side. From there the whole 310.6 m (1,019 ft) span sits broadside to the south, 41.5 m (136 ft) above the valley floor: its eastern end disappears into a tunnel portal on your left, and its western end runs into Amarube station, which sits at deck level on the hillside to your right.

The line is JR West's single-track, non-electrified San'in Main Line. Two kinds of train cross: services calling at Amarube (about 10 minutes from Kasumi and 3 minutes from Yoroi, according to the Kami town tourism site), and the Hamakaze limited express, which JR West lists as running from Osaka as far as Tottori; the Hamakaze services that continue past Kasumi cross the viaduct. Trains are not frequent, so plan the visit around the station timetable rather than waiting on chance.

The second vantage point is the Sora no Eki deck: three preserved spans of the 1912 steel trestle about 40 m (131 ft) up, reached by the free Amarube Crystal Tower elevator or a footpath. It runs parallel to the new bridge a few metres away, so a train passes alongside you at deck level. The deck has opening hours set by the town and closes in bad weather; the lawn below does not depend on it.

Amarube is a small fishing village in a narrow valley that opens straight onto the Sea of Japan; the fishing harbour starts about 150 m (490 ft) north of the lawn. The viaduct closes the valley like a wall: the 2010 bridge is a pale prestressed-concrete extradosed structure with a longest span of 82.5 m (271 ft), and beside it the three red steel trestle piers of the 1912 bridge still stand at the station end, carrying the Sora no Eki walkway. From sunset until 21:30 the Crystal Tower elevator is lit in seasonal colours (green in spring, blue in summer, orange in autumn, white in winter), according to Michi-no-Eki Amarube.

Construction of the original steel trestle began in December 1909; Hyogo Prefecture records its completion in January 1912, and it opened to traffic on 1 March 1912. It was 310.59 m (1,019 ft) long and 41.45 m (136 ft) high, with 11 steel trestle piers and 23 spans. On 28 December 1986 strong wind off the Sea of Japan blew seven cars of the out-of-service Miyabi train off the bridge onto a fish-processing plant below; five women working at the plant and the train's conductor were killed. Hyogo Prefecture states that the work toward replacing the bridge began after that accident.

The replacement, a prestressed-concrete extradosed bridge, was completed in August 2010 (opened 12 August 2010). Three piers and three spans of the old bridge at the Amarube station end were kept: the Sora no Eki observation facility on them was completed in May 2013, and the Amarube Crystal Tower elevator, which rises 40 m (131 ft) in about 45 seconds, was added in November 2017. Amarube station itself only opened on 16 April 1959.

Two generations of the same bridge stand side by side here: the 2010 concrete viaduct carrying today's trains, and three spans of the 1912 steel trestle that carried the San'in Main Line for nearly a century, now a free public walkway at deck height. The viaduct also carries the line directly into a deck-level station on the hillside, so trains are usually slowing or starting at the western end.