Saruhashi Bridge

From the deck, Saruhashi looks like an ordinary wooden footbridge with railings. The strange part is underneath. The bridge spans 30.9 meters across the Katsura River gorge, about 31 meters above the water, and there are no piers. Instead, four layers of beams (hanegi) stick out from each cliff, each layer reaching a little further than the one below, until the two sides are close enough to join. Otsuki City lists it with Kintaikyo Bridge in Iwakuni and the Kiso no Kakehashi as one of Japan's three strange bridges (other lists name different bridges). Legend says a builder from Baekje named Shirako designed it around the year 600 after watching monkeys link their bodies to cross the gorge, which is where the name comes from. The bridge was rebuilt many times. The one standing now dates from 1984 and recreates the 1851 bridge from old records, with steel H-beams faced in wood. Hiroshige painted it in his print Koyo Saruhashi no Zu. The bridge is pedestrian only, free and open at all hours. Nearby you can also see the Yatsuzawa power station aqueduct bridge from 1912, an Important Cultural Property. A visit takes under an hour, so it pairs well with Iwadonoyama or a stop on the way to Mount Fuji.