Yokohama Bay Bridge, Cable-stayed bridge in Yokohama, Japan
The Yokohama Bay Bridge is an 860-metre cable-stayed bridge linking Honmoku Pier in Naka Ward with Daikoku Pier in Tsurumi Ward. Its two white steel towers carry fanned diagonal cables down to a steel truss deck, with the Shuto Expressway Bayshore Route on the upper level and National Route 357 below. The central span measures 460 metres.
Planning began in 1964 under the Yokohama Port and Harbor Bureau, and the route was fixed in 1977 between Tsurumi Ward's Ogishima and Naka Ward's Chidori-cho. Construction started in November 1980, and the upper Bayshore Route deck opened on September 27, 1989, as part of Yokohama's Six Major Projects. The lower National Route 357 deck followed on April 24, 2004.
The bridge's name was modelled on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, while its design drew on the Meiko Nishi Ohashi. Since 1997 it has appeared on Yokohama manhole covers, and it is drawn on city restaurant licences and school report cards. The Yokohama DeNA BayStars baseball team takes its name from the bridge.
The upper deck carries fast-moving highway traffic while the lower level serves as a slower route for local journeys. Both levels require toll payment and the crossing takes only a few minutes depending on conditions.
The Yokohama Skywalk on the Daikoku Pier side leads to an observation point beneath the roadway on the bridge pier. It closed in September 2010 and reopened on 25 June 2022, now also promoting the New Honmoku Pier project. Large cruise ships that cannot clear the bridge's roughly 55 m clearance, such as Queen Mary 2, berth at Daikoku Pier instead.
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