Nagata Bridge

In 1907, elementary-school children returning home for lunch recess tragically drowned at this site when the boat transporting them across the Nagata River sank. Municipal funds were raised to build a bridge, and a wooden structure designed with seven pilings, one for each victim, was erected the following year. The bridge that stands here today, a concrete structure of a different design, is the seventh iteration of Nagata Bridge. A poignant place of remembrance, it is also an excellent vantage point for viewing both Mt. Nagata, the second-tallest peak on Yakushima at 1,886 meters, and sunsets over the East China Sea.