Eitai Bridge

A Great Arch of the Earthquake Reconstruction

The Eitai Bridge (永代橋) is a steel arch bridge of 1926 in the Sumida River between Shinkawa, Chuo Ward and Saga, Koto Ward, Tokyo, and was designated an Important Cultural Property on June 18, 2007 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a steel three-span cantilevered tied-arch bridge, 184.7 metres long and 25.6 metres wide, including two reinforced concrete piers and two abutments; designation number 02501.

A Bridge of the Capital's Reconstruction

Eitai Bridge, like Kiyosu Bridge, was built as part of the reconstruction of Tokyo after the Great Kanto Earthquake, designed by engineers of the Home Ministry's Reconstruction Bureau led by the head of its civil engineering department, and completed in December 1926 (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is a wide steel three-span cantilevered tied-arch bridge, 184.7 metres long and 25.6 metres wide.

Its piers and abutments are of reinforced concrete. The superstructure is a through tied arch of 100.6 metres, which exerts no horizontal thrust on the ends, flanked by cantilevers and suspended girders; the cantilevers continue the curve of the arch (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Why It Is an Important Cultural Property

The Agency praises the solemn form centred on a great parabolic solid-rib arch, which achieves a modern beauty, and values it as the steel arch with the longest span in Japan when it was built, showing the technical achievement of large-scale construction. It was designated an Important Cultural Property on June 18, 2007.

What to Look For

Look at the great parabolic arch over the Sumida and the way the curve flows on into the cantilevers on each side (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

It is a working road bridge owned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. A Tokyo Bureau of Construction newsletter notes that Kiyosu, Eitai and Kachidoki bridges on the Sumida are all Important Cultural Properties.