Wakato Bridge

The Wakato Bridge extends 627 meters across Dokai Bay with a central span of 367 meters and a width of 19.6 meters, connecting the Wakamatsu and Tobata districts.

Upon its inauguration in September 1962, the bridge established construction records in Japan and represented the most advanced engineering methods available for suspension bridge construction in Asia.

The Japanese name Wakato originates from combining characters of the connected districts: Waka from Wakamatsu and To from Tobata, reflecting local geographical nomenclature.

The bridge structure expanded from two to four lanes during the 1980s to accommodate increasing traffic volumes, and in 2018 all toll charges were eliminated.

Light refraction techniques measured bridge strain during construction as modern computational methods were not available in the 1960s.

Location: Wakamatsu-ku

Location: Tobata-ku

Length: 627 m

Width: 19.6 m

GPS coordinates: 33.90250,130.81700

Latest update: November 28, 2025 14:28