Watarase Keikoku Railway Fukasawa Bridge

A Gently Bent Bridge

The Watarase Keikoku Railway Fukasawa Bridge (わたらせ渓谷鐵道深沢橋梁) is a steel two-span girder bridge built in 1913 at the boundary of Kurohone-cho, Kiryu City, and Omama-cho, Midori City, Gunma Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 2, 2009 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency for Cultural Affairs records a steel 2-span girder bridge 30 metres long, with abutments and a pier, registration number 10-0296.

The Ashio Copper Railway

According to Watarase Keikoku Railway, the Ashio copper mine, bought by Furukawa Ichibei in 1877, grew to produce half of Japan's copper, more than horses and a horse tramway could carry, so a railway was built from Kiryu to Ashio. The Ashio Railway opened to Omama in 1911, reached Ashio in December 1912 and was completed to Ashio Honzan in 1914. Nationalised in 1918 as the Ashio Line, it has been run by Watarase Keikoku Railway since 1989.

The Watarase Keikoku Railway Fukasawa Bridge crosses the Fukasawa stream about 820 metres south-west of the Shiroori Bridge (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Value as a Registered Cultural Property

The Watarase Keikoku Railway Fukasawa Bridge was registered as a structure contributing to the historic landscape of the country. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that the bridge as a whole bends gently in plan.

What to Look For

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes a single-track bridge of standard Type 727 plate girders 13 metres and 16 metres long, the longer one with splice plates; it was altered in 1938, 1939 and 1948.

Watarase Keikoku Railway's pamphlet notes that the two deck plate girders rest on two abutments and one pier; the concrete abutment on the Motojuku side was rebuilt in 1948 during recovery from Typhoon Kathleen.

Visiting

The Watarase Keikoku Railway Fukasawa Bridge comes into view about two minutes after Kamikanbai Station on a Mato-bound train, or about 30 seconds after Motojuku Station on a Kiryu-bound train (Watarase Keikoku Railway). Watarase Keikoku Railway notes that all of its registered structures can be seen from the train.

Do not enter the tracks; view it from the train, the station or nearby roads. It is located at Kurohone-cho, Kiryu City, and Kamikanbai, Omama-cho, Midori City, Gunma Prefecture. Of the line's 38 registered structures, the 26 in Gunma and 11 in Tochigi are gathered on the group pages Watarase Keikoku Railway (Gunma Section) and Watarase Keikoku Railway (Tochigi Section).