二重橋

About this photo

A stone arch bridge runs across the picture beside a dark stand of trees. Beneath the arch is a dark opening, and a single line of railing runs along the top of the bridge. Beside the arch, one slender post reaches high into the sky. In front of the bridge lies a bright slope, perhaps grass or an earth bank.

On the way from the Imperial Palace Plaza through the main gate to the palace, two bridges cross the moat. The stone arch bridge in the photo is the nearer one, the Seimon Ishibashi, and behind it is the Seimon Tetsubashi (Main Gate Iron Bridge). "Nijubashi" was originally the name of the one farther back. The wooden bridge that stood there in the Edo period had a double (niju) structure, with a support set midway to hold up the girders, and that is how it got the name.

Glossary