Kiyosu-bashi Bridge, Tokyo, c. 1930.

“Kiyosu Bridge, over the Sumida River in Tokyo, is another representative suspension bridge constructed in prewar Japan.

“It was the first self-anchored chain suspension bridge in Japan. This bridge is said to have been designed after the Köln-Deutz Bridge in Germany. The aesthetic sense of the bridge designer can be inferred from the fact that the Köln-Deutz towers were selected as the model for the Kiyosu Bridge.

“… From the viewpoint of form, it can be said that the designers of both bridges were concerned with architectural or ornamental elements, despite their attempt to use a tower form in which the peculiarities of steel structures could be designed.”

– Bridge Aesthetics Around the World, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, 1991

Kiyosu Bridge, c. 1930. Completed in 1928, the bridge is still in use today (2017).

“After the Great Kanto earthquake disaster in 1923, high tensile steel have been positively adopted for bridge structural uses [in Tokyo], and Kiyosu Bridge is a typical example. This eyebar-chain-bridge over the Sumida river in Tokyo is a self-anchored suspension bridge and a masterpiece among riveted bridges.”

– Bridge Engineering Handbook, edited by Wai-Fah Chen & Lian Duan, 1999