Nishi No. 2 Bridge: A 1916 Skew Span over an Irrigation Canal
About three kilometers west of Idakiso Station, the Kishigawa Line meets an irrigation channel that runs almost parallel to the tracks, and the two cross at a sharp angle. The bridge that solves this awkward geometry is small, just 14 meters long and built as two girder spans, but its construction is unusual. Because the railway and the waterway meet at such an acute angle, the two main girders are not set squarely opposite one another; instead they are staggered, offset markedly along the line so that the deck can span the skewed crossing. The girders are plate I-beams about 6.7 meters long, carrying a single track.
This is the oldest of the line's three registered bridges. It dates to 1916, the year the railway opened, and stands on the original section laid by the Santo Light Railway rather than on the later extension to Kishi. Its modest size belies the engineering thought that went into fitting it to its site.
Why It Is Registered
The bridge joined the national register in 2014 as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. Introduced in 1996, this category is lighter than the Important Cultural Property designation and protects modern-era structures, civil-engineering works among them, while they stay in service.
Nishi No. 2 Bridge was registered under the criterion of being difficult to reproduce. The staggered arrangement of its girders, devised to carry the track across a canal at an acute skew, is a site-specific solution rather than a catalogue design, and it preserves an early example of how the line negotiated the small obstacles of its route. The bridge is listed together with the two Oike bridges on the 1933 extension to the east and with the inspection shed and platform at Idakiso Station.
What to Look For When You Visit
The skew is the thing to notice. Seen from beside the canal, the two girders do not line up across the channel as they would on an ordinary square crossing; one is set forward of the other, and the deck reads as a shape pulled out of true to follow the angle of the water. It is a quiet piece of problem-solving, easy to miss from a moving train but clear once you stand at the right spot on the bank.
The bridge belongs to the founding 1916 section of a line built to carry pilgrims toward three shrines along the valley. Decades later the route drew visitors from abroad after a cat named Tama became stationmaster at the Kishi terminus in 2007, and the themed trains designed by Eiji Mitooka still run over this oldest of its bridges. Riding the full line with a one-day pass lets you compare all three registered bridges, from this compact skew span in the west to the long Oike crossings in the east.
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Q&A
- What makes this bridge unusual?
- It crosses an irrigation canal at a sharp angle, so its two main girders are staggered, offset along the line rather than set squarely opposite, to span the skewed crossing.
- How old is it compared with the other bridges?
- It is the oldest of the three registered bridges, dating to 1916 when the line opened. The two Oike bridges to the east were built later, in 1933.
- Where exactly is it?
- At Nishi, Wakayama City, roughly three kilometers west of Idakiso Station, on the original section of the line near the irrigation channel it crosses.
- How can I see it?
- You ride over it on the Kishigawa Line, and the skew is best appreciated from public ground beside the canal. As a working railway bridge, do not enter the track or railway property.
Basic Information
| Name | Wakayama Electric Railway Kishigawa Line, Nishi No. 2 Bridge |
|---|---|
| Location | Yodo, Nishi, Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (registered 25 April 2014; registration no. 30-0188) |
| Built | 1916 (Taisho 5) |
| Count / Scale | 1 structure; steel two-span girder bridge, length 14 m, single track; girders of 6.7 m I-beams, staggered to span a skewed crossing |
| Owner | Wakayama Electric Railway Co., Ltd. |
| Access | On the Kishigawa Line about 3 km west of Idakiso Station. Best experienced by riding across; active railway bridge, do not enter railway property. |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00010037
- Wakayama Electric Railway Co., Ltd. official site
- https://wakayama-dentetsu.co.jp/
- Wakayama Prefecture, railways information
- https://www.pref.wakayama.lg.jp/prefg/020500/tetudou/tamadesu.html
Last verified: 2026.06.22