West Kagawa · SakaideNo.1008★★★Open in map →

Great Seto Bridge

localThe classic — done right

A chain of bridges stepping island to island across the Inland Sea, carrying a motorway on the upper deck and a railway on the lower. At its Shikoku end a free park lies directly beneath the final span, with a museum on how the crossing was put together.

FromTakamatsu Station
~20 minCity bus from Sakaide Station
Get off atSakaide Station (JR Yosan and Seto-Ohashi lines)
From there
Great Seto Bridge

Directions ↗

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Seto Ohashi Memorial Hall663highland / CC BY 2.5

Seto Ohashi Memorial Hallexhibition rooms explaining the bridge works through moving models and film, free to enter
Bridge Theatrea domed all-sky screen inside the hall, with audio available in English, Chinese and Korean
Construction machinery displaymachines used on the bridge works, left outdoors at their working size
Water Corridora straight water axis running from the hall down through the lawns
Marine Domean open-air stage on the seaward side of the park

How to actually get there

Takamatsu to Sakaide on the JR Yosan Line; the Marine Liner rapid stops here as well.
From the station front, the Sakaide municipal bus towards Sei to the memorial park, about twenty minutes.
Start inside the memorial hall and its bridge theatre, then come out to the machinery display.
Walk down the water corridor to the marine dome, where the sea and the final span sit in the same view.

Takamatsu to Sakaide by JR, then the municipal bus: Sakaide is a main station on the JR Yosan Line and the Marine Liner rapid on the Seto-Ohashi route calls there too, so trains from Takamatsu are frequent. From the station front, the Sakaide municipal bus towards Sei runs out to the memorial park. A taxi covers the same ground directly if the bus timing is awkward.
Back to Sakaide Station: The same municipal route returns to the station, but it is a local service rather than a frequent one, so read the timetable at the stop before you settle in on the lawn. Sakaide sits on the through line to Okayama as well as the line to Takamatsu, so once you are back at the station both directions are open.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The Great Seto Bridge is a collective name, not a single structure. Six bridges carry the crossing: Shimotsui-Seto, Hitsuishijima, Iwakurojima, Yoshima, Kita Bisan-Seto and Minami Bisan-Seto. They use the islands of Hitsuishijima, Iwakurojima and Yoshima as stepping stones, and the marine section runs about 9.4 kilometres. The build is double-deck. The Seto-Chuo Expressway takes the upper level and the JR Honshi-Bisan Line the lower, so this is a combined road and rail crossing rather than a motorway with a track added later. On the Shikoku side the chain comes down at Bannosu, a flat of reclaimed industrial land in Sakaide, and the park occupies the point where it touches ground.

How to enjoy it

The memorial hall opens at 9:00 and closes at 17:00. The park itself has no gate and no ticket, so the ground under the bridge stays walkable when the hall is shut. The railway runs on the lower deck through the day, which means the traffic overhead is not only road traffic.

Background & history

Bridging the strait here was argued over for decades before ground was broken, and the works then ran for about nine years and six months. The crossing opened on 10 April 1988, the expressway above and the railway below entering service on the same day. Ribbon-cutting was held at both ends, at Hayashima on the Okayama side and Sakaide on the Kagawa side, while the formal ceremony took place mid-channel on Yoshima. Celebrations followed that afternoon in Kurashiki and in Sakaide.

Before you go

Cash: The park is free to enter and the memorial hall charges no admission either. Parking on site is free. Carry cash for the bus and check at the door whether an IC card is accepted before you board.
Good to know: The hall closes on Mondays, shifting to the following day when the Monday is a public holiday, and it stays open through Golden Week and the summer holidays. It also closes over the New Year. The park is reclaimed flat ground open to the sea, so there is little shelter from wind or sun.
Another way: By car the park sits close to the Seto-Chuo Expressway interchange at Sakaide and doubles as a roadside station. The Yoshima service area, midway across, has the finest view along the bridge, but it lies inside the expressway and cannot be reached on foot from the park.
After you get off: Sakaide Station is where the train leaves you. The park is out to the north-west on the Bannosu reclaimed land, past the industrial belt, and it is not a walk. Take the municipal bus or a taxi from the station front. The entrance and the car parks sit together at the foot of the viaduct.