Akashi Kaikyo Bridge

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge 明石海峡大橋
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge from the air, December 2005
Coordinates	34°36′58″N 135°01′14″E / 34.6162°N 135.0205°E / 34.6162; 135.0205
Carries	Six lanes of the Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway and four emergency lanes
Crosses	Akashi Strait[1]
Locale	Awaji Island and Kobe[1]
Other name(s)	Pearl Bridge[2]
Maintained by	Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway Company Limited (JB Honshi Kōsoku)
Characteristics
Design	Suspension bridge[1]
Total length	3,911 metres (12,831 ft)
Height	282.8 metres (928 ft) (pylons)[1]
Longest span	1,991 metres (6,532 ft)[1]
Clearance below	65.72 metres (215.6 ft)
History
Designer	Satoshi Kashima
Construction start	1988[1]
Construction end	1998[1]
Opened	April 5, 1998
Statistics
Toll	¥2,300
Location

The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (Japanese: 明石海峡大橋, Hepburn: Akashi Kaikyō Ōhashi) 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,^[1] and at the time, was the longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world,^[3] at 1,991 metres (6,532 ft). 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.