Seta no Karahashi Bridge

One of Japan's three famous bridges, Seta no Karahashi crosses the Seta River at 224 meters and has stood as a landmark on the old Tokaido highway since the seventh century. The warlord Oda Nobunaga fixed its current location and configuration in the sixteenth century. Its green onion-shaped railing ornaments, called giboshi, are drawn from traditional Korean and Chinese bridge designs, a reference embedded in the bridge's name. Each year the bridge closes to traffic during the Senkosai Festival when ceremonial boats carrying portable shrines pass beneath it. The current bridge dates to 1979.