Architecturally, the Seogang Bridge is one of the lovelier of the Hangang River bridges. It didn’t go up easily, though. Initial construction began in 1980, but work was eventually suspended due to environmental concerns.
The bridge wasn’t completed until 1999.
At one time, they used to light the bridge up, but no longer as the island it passes over is a protected bird sanctuary.
The winding beltways along the concrete embankments of the Hangang River may be environmentally destructive and have probably done more than any other factor to cut the river off from the daily lives of Seoul’s people. But they make for some nice nighttime photographs, especially if you can get a bit higher.
If you’ve got an interest in these sort of things, the bridge is of a type called—erroneously, it would seem—a Nielsen-Lohse bridge in some parts of the world.
Bamseom Island is the low-lying island (two islands, actually) over which the bridge crosses. It’s now an uninhabited, protected sanctuary for migratory birds, but until the 1960s, it was home to a small community of shipbuilders.
In 1968, however, the villagers were evicted and the island was blasted to obtain the rock and soil and soil needed to develop the flood-prone sandbar just across the river, Yeouido.
These photos were shot from a rooftop garden atop an “officetel” not far from Exit 5 of Gwangheungchang Station, Line 6. Anyone can go up there, but you need to pay 30,000 won (50,000 if you’ve got a group of five or more).
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