The Kanmonkyo Bridge (関門橋 Kanmonkyō Kanmon bridge) (Asian Highway Network

Asian Highway Network

The Asian Highway project, also known as the Great Asian Highway, is a cooperative project among countries in Asia and Europe and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific , to improve the highway systems in Asia...

 ) is a suspension bridge

Suspension bridge

A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...

 crossing the Kanmon Straits

Kanmon Straits

The Kanmon Straits or the Straits of Shimonoseki is the stretch of water separating two of Japan's four main islands. On the Honshū side of the water is Shimonoseki and on the Kyūshū side is Kitakyūshū, whose former city and present ward, Moji , gave the strait its "mon"...

, a stretch of water separating two of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's four main islands. On the Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

 side of the bridge is Shimonoseki (下関, which contributed "Kan" to the name of the strait) and on the Kyūshū

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

 side is Kitakyushu, whose former city and present ward, Moji

Moji

Moji may refer to:* Hyōon moji or onji, phonic characters used in counting beats in Japanese poetry* Moji-ku, Kitakyūshū, Japanese ward or district* ...Moji, musical album...

 (門司), gave the strait its "mon".

The Kanmonkyo bridge was opened to vehicles on November 14, 1973 and connected to the Kyūshū Expressway

Kyushu Expressway

' is one of the Expressways of Japan from Kitakyūshū to west of Kagoshima linking with the Higashi Kyushu Expressway and the Ibusuki Skyline. It runs through the prefectures of Fukuoka, the eastern half of the Saga, Kumamoto, Miyazaki and the Kagoshima prefectures. The freeway runs entirely on...

 on March 27, 1984. It is the 34th largest suspension bridge in the world with a central span of 712 metres.

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