You're looking at Tokyo's newest landmark, the 'Dinosaur' Bridge. Officially known as the Tokyo Gate Bridge — providing a link from the capital to a landfill — it shows what actually happens when a government succeeds in spending $1.4 billion on a bridge to nowhere.
Under construction since 2002, the Tokyo Gate Bridge was going to link to the site of Tokyo's 2016 Olympics on a man-made island. Tokyo lost the Olympic bid to Rio de Janeiro, so now this bridge is going to lead to a big park where the Olympics were supposed to be.
It's not a complete loss: the 1.6 mile-long, four-lane bridge is expected to take 32,000 vehicles per day, probably travelling to the reclaimed island's new shipping terminal or to Haneda Airport, Tokyo's hub for domestic flights. Also on the island is a major landfill, but we doubt many people will be going there to hang out.
Regardless of how useful the bridge is, it has already become a major attraction in Japan's capital, mainly because the z-shaped trusses look like dinosaurs. That's where it gets the name "Dinosaur Bridge" and that's why local boat tours are almost sold out for the next few months. People want to marvel at the two dinos that have long gazed at each other across the bay and are now finally linked together.
Photo Credit: Daisuke Tashiro, wikipedia.org