"Yoshidabashi bridge gently arched above the Ha-Ookagawa where the river debouched into the estuary. It was the main entrance to the Gated Within (…)
Japanese bridges, with few exceptions, were built of wood, trees with bark even serving as piers. This was the least durable of materials in a country of heavy rains. Bridges were built in expectation of replacement in several years.
In 1868 Kanagawa Governor Terashima asked Henry Brunton, a Scottish engineer, to build Yoshidabashi from iron. The bridge would be in the nature of an experiment and would demonstrate to the governor’s countrymen how bridges were built abroad. (…) The country got its second iron bridge, though Brunton returned home thinking he had erected its first. An iron bridge had earlier been built in Nagasaki (…)
Iron bridges lasted and could support heavy vehicles. What they did not was inspire (…)
The Ha-Ookagawa was reclaimed in the early 1970s. Today Yoshidabashi spans a highway. A plaque on the present bridge explains its history."
(Burritt Sabin, 'A historical guide to Yokohama', ed. Yurindo, Yokohama, 2002, p. 94-96)
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