Ōnaruto Bridge, Suspension bridge in Naruto, Japan
Ōnaruto Bridge is a steel suspension bridge connecting Awaji to Shikoku across a span of 1,629 meters with pylons rising 144 meters. Beneath the roadway runs a glazed pedestrian walkway named Uzunomichi, through which visitors look down onto the strait below.
Construction began in 1976 as part of a larger effort to connect the main Japanese islands and was completed in 1985. This completion enabled the first direct road link between Awaji and Shikoku across the strait.
The bridge's name comes from the Naruto Strait it crosses, and its Japanese name, Ōnaruto-kyō, means "Great Naruto Bridge". Since April 2000 the space under the deck, originally reserved for the Shinkansen, has held the Uzunomichi walkway, about 450 metres long, where visitors look down at the whirlpools 45 metres below. The bridge appears almost daily in the Tokushima local programme Ohayō Tokushima.
Four traffic lanes run the entire length and carry roughly 18,600 vehicles each day. Pedestrians can enter the Uzunomichi walkway, where glass floors offer views down to the water below, especially worthwhile in clear weather.
The location above one of the world's strongest tidal currents creates visible whirlpools that can reach roughly 20 meters (66 feet) in diameter. Visitors watch these water movements through the glass floors of the pedestrian passage when tides shift.
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