Originally Posted by
OskiBear
Impressive!
Intellectually I knew this, but it's still disappointing to see the Yamanote is not a perfect circle!
Well ... It wasn't conceived as a loop. The Western straight was constructed first. It was a line from somewhere up in Saitama down to Shinagawa, I think - The connection with lines going up towards Tokyo station and looping around the top came later.
At least that's what I read somewhere ... I'm pretty sure.