Furukawa Bridge is a road bridge located in Akakura, Ashio-machi, Nikko-shi, Tochigi Prefecture. It spans the Matsukawa River, an upper stream of the Watarase River, a first-class river system of the Tone River. It is designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan.
It's a 48.5-meter-long truss bridge built in January 1, 1891 (Meiji 24), when the dedicated electric railway (later part of the Ashio Copper Mine Horsecar Railway) of Furukawa Mining Co., Ltd. (currently Furukawa Co., Ltd.) was constructed across the Matsukawa River.
The Honzan district, where the old Ashio Honzan Station was located, was the center of operations for the Ashio copper mine. The Matsukawa River flows between the Honzan district and the Akakura district, where company housing was situated. To connect the two districts, a wooden bridge called Naoribashi was built in 1884 (Meiji 17), but it was destroyed in a great fire in Matsukimura on April 8, 1887 (Meiji 20). Therefore, this bridge was constructed on the site of Naoribashi, designed by a German engineer, to transport ore from the Ashio copper mine to the Ashio smelter.
Construction began in June 1890 (Meiji 23), but an accident occurred on August 22 of the same year when the Matsukawa River flooded, washing away the scaffolding. After resuming work on October 26 of the same year, the construction was rushed, and it was completed on December 28. In the following year, 1891 (Meiji 24), a single-track electric railway, the first of its kind in Japan, was built for both road and rail use.
Afterward, it continued to be used as a road bridge, undergoing reinforcement work. However, due to the aging of the bridge, a new Furukawa Bridge was built south of it in 1993 (Heisei 5), and the original bridge is now preserved as a pedestrian bridge. Currently, a fence is installed at the bridge entrance, making it off-limits to pedestrians.
In 1981 (Showa 56), it was designated as a cultural property of Ashio town, and in March 20, 2006 (Heisei 18), it became a designated cultural property of Nikko city. In 2014 (Heisei 26), it was designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. It is also selected as a 'Modern Civil Engineering Heritage 2800' B-rank by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers.
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