t in comparison to that suffered by buildings.
The damage varied from only damaged railings to complete destruction of
the superstructure. Some of the bridges were wrecked and the spans
were shoved off their piers and into the river bed below by the force
of the blast. Others, particularly steel plate girder bridges, were
badly buckled by the blast pressure. None of the failures observed
could be attributed to inadequate design or structural weaknesses.

The roads, and railroad and street railway trackage sustained
practically no primary damage as a result of the explosion. Most of
the damage to railroads occurred from secondary causes, such as fires
and damage to bridges or other structures. Rolling stock, as well as
automobiles, trolleys, and buses were destroyed and burned up to a
considerable distance from X. Streets were impassable for awhile
because of the debris, but they were not damaged. The height of the
bomb explosion probably explains the absence of direct damage to
railroads and roads.

A large part of the electric supply was interrupted by the bomb blast
chiefly through damage to electric substations and overhead
transmission systems. Both gas works in Nagasaki were severely damaged
by the bomb. These works would have required 6-7 months to get into
operation. In addition to the damage sustained by the electrical and
gas systems, severe damage to the water supply system was reported by
the Japanese government; the chief damage was a number of breaks in the
large water mains and in almost all of the distributing pipes in the
areas which were affected by the blast. Nagasaki was still suffering
from a water shortage inside the city six weeks after the atomic attack.

The Nagasaki Prefectural report describes vividly the effects of the
bomb on the city and its inhabitants:

"Within a radius of 1 kilometer from X, men and animals died almost
instantaneously and outside a radius of 1 kilometer and within a radius
of 2 kilometers from X, some men and animals died instantly from the
great blast and heat but the great majority were seriously or
superficially injured. Houses and other structures were completely
destroyed while fires broke out everywhere. Trees were uprooted and
withered by the heat.

"Outside a radius of 2 kilometers and within a radius of 4 kilometers
from X, men and animals suffered various degrees of injury from window
glass and other fragments scattered about by the blast and m