First Sunrise of 2009

For the full-size photos, see the Flickr slideshow here.

Took the Han River cruise this morning to see the first sunrise of 2009 — cold as hell, but some gorgeous views.

The sun first popped up over the Dongjak Bridge, which you may or may not recall from “The Host.” The bridge is relatively new, having been built in 1984.

The older of the twin Hangang River Bridges is really quite historic. The current tied arch bridge was built in 1937 to replace an earlier pedestrian bridge that had replaced an even earlier bridge that had been built in 1916 as the first pedestrian bridge to cross the Han River. Like the Hangang Railway Bridge (see below), severals sections of the bridge were blown up — without warning — during the early stages of the Korean War to prevent the North Koreans from crossing the river, a move that as Dr. Andrei Lankov explains hurt the South Koreans more than the North.

The beautiful Hangang Railway Bridges — now registered as cultural properties — include the oldest of the Han River bridges, Hangang Railway Bridge A, which was completed in 1900. Bridges B, C and D were completed in 1912, 1944 and 1995, respectively. For the engineers out there, bridges A and B are Warren truss bridges, while C and D are Pratt truss bridges. Bridge A has a bit of a convoluted construction history — it was started in 1897 by an American, James Morse, who’d been awarded by the Korean imperial government a contract to build the nation’s railroads. He ran into personnel and financial difficulties, however, and before he could complete the bridge, the concession was transferred to the Japanese. The Japanese judged the sections of the bridge Morse built to be unsafe and rebuilt them, although they kept the American-built pylons.

As the first bridge to cross the Han River, Hangang Railway Bridge played a great role in the development of both Seoul as a city and Korea as a nation. Unfortunately, it has also played witness to tragedy — like the Hangang Bridge, sections of bridges A, B and C were rather unceremoniously demolished at the start of the Korean War, in the process killing hundreds of refugees and soldiers and stranding a large part of the South Korean army north of the river to be killed or captured (and then killed) by the invading North Koreans.

Robert Neff wrote a piece on the destruction of the bridges in OhMyNews — it’s got some great photos of the broken bridges. Incidentally, the iconic photo of Korean refugees crossing a destroyed bridge that helped Max Desfor win a Pulitzer in 1951 is NOT a Han River bridge, but rather the railway bridge over the Daedong River in Pyongyang. And to add to the horror of that photo, it was taken in winter, as refugees fled Pyongyang with the retreating UN forces.

It’s a pretty impressive view — the Daehan Life Insurance Building (a.k.a. the 63 Building), the Wonhyo Bridge and the first sun of 2009.

The tour boats and water taxis were out in force, as you can see. Yeouido is in the background.

My wife with some balloons that will carry our New Year’s wishes to the heavens.

Yep, it’s the Daehan Life Insurance Building.

Completed in 1985, this is the closest thing in Seoul to an iconic skyscraper. For a short time upon its completion, it was the tallest building in Asia. Now it’s only the third tallest in Korea, although it’s still the most beautiful. It was designed by famed Chicago architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the kings of skyscraper design.