Wakato Bridge, Steel suspension bridge in Kitakyushu, Japan.
Wakato Bridge is a steel suspension bridge spanning Dokai Bay in Kitakyushu, stretching 627 meters (2060 feet) with a central section of 367 meters (1200 feet) and a deck 19.6 meters (64 feet) wide. It links the Wakamatsu and Tobata districts, carrying a roadway that was first built with two lanes and later widened to four.
The crossing opened in September 1962 and set construction records in Japan at the time, using the most advanced engineering methods for suspension bridges in Asia. In the 1980s it was expanded from two to four lanes to handle growing traffic demand.
The name Wakato combines characters from the two linked districts: Waka from Wakamatsu and To from Tobata. This naming approach shows how geographic terms in the region mark connections between places.
All toll charges were removed in 2018, so the roadway is now free to use. The four lanes offer enough capacity for daily traffic between the two districts.
During construction in the early 1960s, engineers used light refraction techniques to measure strain on the structure, since modern computer methods did not yet exist. These optical procedures allowed them to observe deformations accurately and check structural integrity without digital tools.
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