Nakagawa Bridge

A Stone Arch on the Old Nagasaki Highway

The Nakagawa Bridge (中川橋) is a stone arch bridge of 1918 in Sakurababa and Nakagawa, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on November 2, 2009 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-span stone arch bridge, 14 metres long and 7.9 metres wide; registration number 42-0086.

A Road Bridge on the Nagasaki Highway

The Nakagawa Bridge was built on the Nagasaki Kaido highway and carries the road over the Narutaki River, part of the Nakashima River system (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is a single-span stone arch 14 metres long, with a span of 11 metres and a width of 7.9 metres, its spandrels laid in regular courses.

The deck is level, and granite and andesite are used for different parts, giving a modern look (Agency for Cultural Affairs). According to Nagasaki City, a stone bridge built in 1654 stands upstream; when the new Nakagawa Bridge was built downstream in 1918, the older one came to be called Furuhashi, the old bridge.

Why It Was Registered

The Agency notes that it tells the story of how a main highway was modernised, and registered it for its contribution to the historic landscape.

What to Look For

Look for the level deck, the coursed spandrels and the mix of granite and andesite (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Seen with the old bridge upstream, it shows how bridge building changed.

Visiting

It is a road bridge. The Agency database does not list the owner. No official visiting information was found.