Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, Suspension bridge connecting Kobe to Awaji Island in Japan.
The Akashi Kaikyō Bridge is a three-span, two-hinge stiffened truss suspension bridge over the Akashi Strait, linking Tarumi-ku in Kobe with Iwaya on Awaji Island. Its two steel towers rise 298.3 m above the sea, carry two main cables 112.2 cm in diameter, and support a 3,911 m deck with a 1,991 m central span.
Construction began in May 1988 and the stiffening girder was closed in September 1996; the bridge opened on 5 April 1998. The 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake shifted the seabed, widening the central span by about 0.8 m and lengthening the bridge by 1 m from its planned 3,910 m.
Locals call it Pearl Bridge, a nickname chosen by public contest in Hyogo Prefecture, though road signs and the operator use Akashi Ohashi. The bridge carries the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway, the busiest of the Honshu-Shikoku routes, and below the roadway run power cables, telecom fibre and a water main to Awaji Island.
The bridge carries six lanes of traffic between Tarumi-ku and Awaji, operated by the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority, with observation points available at Maiko Marine Promenade.
During the 1995 Kobe earthquake, the bridge's central span stretched by one meter, extending its length from the originally planned dimensions while remaining structurally sound.
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