Shirahige Bridge, Road bridge over the Sumida River in Minami-Senju, Tokyo, Japan
Shirahige Bridge carries Meiji-dōri (Tokyo Route 306) across the Sumida River, linking Minami-Senju and Hashiba on the west bank with Tsutsumidōri on the east. Its 167.6 m span is a through-braced rib-tied arch: a light grey steel truss of triangles over the deck, which rests on solid piers rising from the water, with a narrower lower deck beneath the main span. Jun Masuda designed it and Kawasaki Shipyard built the girders.
The first Shirahige Bridge opened in May 1914 as a wooden toll bridge, about 230 metres long, funded by a joint-stock company formed by local residents; a toll of one sen per adult later rose to two sen, and in 1925 the Tokyo Prefecture bought it. Though undamaged by the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake, it was replaced under the reconstruction plan where the Meiji-dori route crosses the Sumida. The steel bridge was begun in July 1928 and completed in June 1931, designed by Jun Masuda with the girder made by Kawasaki Dockyard.
The bridge is named after the Shirahige Shrine on the east bank. The correct spelling uses the character for a chin beard (鬚), not the one for a moustache (髭), a mistake often made. The bridge also appears in Edogawa Ranpo's novel The Magician and in the manga Arakawa Under the Bridge.
The bridge carries Tokyo Route 306, Meiji-dori, across the Sumida River, linking Minami-Senju and Hashiba on the west bank with Tsutsumidori on the east. Its deck is 24.1 metres wide, so pedestrians and cyclists cross alongside traffic. The steel truss rises above the roadway, and a lower deck section runs beneath the main span.
The bridge's name is often misspelled with the character for a moustache (髭) instead of the correct one for a beard (鬚), after the Shirahige Shrine on the east bank. The steel truss weighs 1,923 tonnes and was fabricated by Kawasaki Shipbuilding; the design is by Jun Masuda, who used the same braced-rib tied-arch form for Asakusa Bridge.
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