本町橋

The oldest bridge in the city still in use. It is held to have been built when Toyotomi Hideyoshi raised Osaka Castle and the Higashi-Yokobori River was cut. A record left in Tenmei 7 (1787) gives it as a wooden bridge about 54 m long and 5.9 m wide. In the Edo period it was a kogi-bashi, managed directly by the shogunate, and held an important place linking Osaka Castle with Funabashi; the west city magistrate's office stood at the north-east of its foot, which made this a centre of government as well. The present bridge was rebuilt in Taisho 12 (1923) when Honmachi-dori was widened for the tram road. It has a heavy structure of three steel arches carried on stone piers. From Showa 54 (1979), as the parts corroded, three years were spent on repair and on making it handsome again.

Translated from the Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City tourist listings (観光施設一覧, CC BY 4.0).