萬代橋

About this photo

This photograph shows Bandai Bridge over the Shinano River in Niigata City. It appears in Nihon no Meisho (Famous Sights of Japan), published in 1900 (Meiji 33). Judging from the book's date, the bridge shown is the first one, a wooden bridge built in 1886.

The first Bandai Bridge was a long wooden bridge, about 782 meters long and about 7.3 meters wide. The Shinano River was then nearly three times as wide as it is today, and this was a large bridge over a great river. It was built by a private individual, and crossing it cost a toll of 1 sen, but in 1900 Niigata Prefecture bought it and made it free. In the Great Niigata Fire of 1908, more than half of it burned and fell.

Today's Bandai Bridge is the third. Completed in 1929, it has six arches in a row faced with granite. It was designated an Important Cultural Property in 2004 and is still a symbol of Niigata, busy with cars and people.

Glossary