Yeongdo Bridge, Bascule bridge in Busan, South Korea.
Yeongdo Bridge is a steel bascule bridge over Busan South Port, linking the mainland Jung District to Yeongdo Island. One section of the bridge lifts to let larger vessels pass through the channel below.
The bridge was built in 1934 during the Japanese colonial period and was the first bascule bridge in Korea to have a working lift mechanism. The mechanism was shut down in 1966 and stayed out of service for nearly 47 years before being restored.
For many people in Busan, this crossing carries a deep emotional weight tied to the Korean War, when families gathered here to leave notes searching for missing relatives. That memory still shapes how locals talk about the bridge and what it means to the city.
The lift mechanism operates once a day in the early afternoon for a short time, so arriving a few minutes before helps you find a good spot along the waterfront. The bridge is easy to reach on foot from both sides of the channel, as it sits in a busy port area.
During the nearly 47 years when the lifting mechanism was frozen, the bridge gradually became seen as a symbol of something stopped in time rather than just an old structure. When it was reopened in 2013, thousands of people gathered to watch it rise for the first time in decades.
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