The , is a

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

Kitakyūshū is a city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, Kitakyushu has an estimated population of 940,978, making it the second-largest city in both Fukuoka Prefecture and the island of Kyushu after the city of Fukuoka. It is one of ...

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The bridge opened on September 26, 1962, and it spans a length of two kilometers and has a main span of 367 meters. The name of the bridge comes from the

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

of the Kitakyūshū wards of Wakamatsu (若松) and Tobata (戸畑) that the bridge connects across Dokai Bay.

History

The bridge passed into the control of Kitakyūshū on September 30, 2005.

Wakato Ferry

The Wakato ferry existed before the bridge was built; it has been retained by the city for pedestrians and cyclists, as the bridge is nowadays reserved for motor vehicle traffic only, since a large number of suicides has occurred from its deck. The three-minute journey costs 100 yen each way for adults, and 50 yen for children and older people. Bicycles can be transported for an additional 100 yen.

In Popular Culture

The space monster Dogora, lifted and destroyed the bridge in the 1964 Toho dai Kaiju movie Space Monster Dogora. Wakato Ohashi night view

References

Suspension bridges in Japan Bridges completed in 1962 {{Japan-bridge-struct-stub