Historic Tokyo Bridge Liberated from Concrete Overpass Will Shine Again Thanks to Grassroots Campaign

Historic Tokyo Bridge Liberated from Concrete Overpass Will Shine Again Thanks to Grassroots Campaign

Historic Tokyo Bridge Liberated from Concrete Overpass Will Shine Again Thanks to Grassroots Campaign Nihonbashi Bridge before WWII – credit Urbz CC 2.0. via Flickr Imagine the outrage if construction of a highway interchange was approved directly overhead of the Brooklyn Bridge—that’s what one Tokyo neighborhood has had to deal with for more than 60 years. The most historic bridge in the city has long been bathed in the shadow and tumult of a concrete overpass, but things are looking up for the Nihonbashi Bridge—literally. The bridge under the overpass – credit Charles, CC 2.0. via Flickr A coalition of the metropolitan governments is preparing to remove the overpass as part of an urban rejuvenation project. The result will take the area back to the days of the Meiji Restoration, when the bridge was a center of community activity, and a symbol of both progress and order. Construction of Nihonbashi was ordered in 1603 by the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, and it was to serve a huge purpose in the …