Hatatekura Bridge, Girder bridge in Kita-ku and Nishi-ku, Japan.
Hatatekura Bridge is a seven-span steel plate girder bridge over the Tosa Horikawa between Nakanoshima 6-chome in Kita-ku and Kawaguchi 1- and 2-chome in Nishi-ku, Osaka. Its current deck dates from 1963, measures 111.95 m long and 24.00 m wide, and was raised about 2 m with a steel deck replacing concrete. At its north end it meets Funatsu Bridge over the Dojima River, at its south end Showa Bridge over the Kizu River.
The first bridge on this site opened in October 1878, linking Nakanoshima with the Kawaguchi foreign settlement; it was a wooden bridge on iron piers, 94.5 m long and 5.5 m wide. It was washed away in the 1885 Yodo River flood and rebuilt by 6 May 1886. The bridge was replaced in 1909 for the Osaka city tram Kujo-Nakanoshima line, and the present structure dates from June 1921. A 2022 replacement with an arch bridge is under way, now scheduled for completion in March 2030.
The name is said to come from storehouses (kura) built at Nakanoshima's western end during the Edo period, when the island held the warehouses of many domains; a rival explanation credits a frugal man who went barefoot and built a storehouse. The bridge links Nakanoshima 6-chome with Kawaguchi, site of the old foreign settlement.
The bridge is open daily for traffic between the two districts and is accessible on foot or by vehicle. Expect normal traffic conditions, particularly during morning and evening rush hours when crossing.
The bridge's name is debated: one explanation cites the warehouses (kura) once built at Nakanoshima's western end, another a frugal man said to have gone barefoot year-round while building a storehouse. The 1843 storehouse of the Saijō domain, however, stood well east of the western tip.
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