Akashi Kaikyo Bridge
The is a suspension bridge which links the city of Kobe on the Japanese island of Honshu to Iwaya on Awaji Island. It is part of the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway, and crosses the busy and turbulent Akashi Strait (Akashi Kaikyō in Japanese). It was completed in 1998, and at the time, was the longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world, at . Currently, it is the second-longest, behind the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge that was opened in March 2022. It is one of the key links of the Honshū–Shikoku Bridge Project, which created three routes across the Inland Sea. History Background The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge forms part of the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway, the easternmost route of the bridge system linking the islands of Honshu and Shikoku. The bridge crosses the Akashi Strait (width 4 km) between Kobe on Honshu and Iwaya on Awaji Island; the other major part of the crossing is completed by the Ōnaruto Bridge, which links Awaji Island to Ōge Island across the Naruto Strait. Before the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge was built, ferries carried passengers across the Akashi Strait. A major passageway for shipping, it is also known for its gales, heavy rain, storms, and natural disasters.