Yeongdo Daegyo

Yeongdo Daegyo, a bridge connecting Yeongdo Island to the Busan mainland, was begun in March 1932 and opened in November 1934; at 214.7 m long and 18.3 m wide, it was Korea's first bridge linking an island to the mainland. It opened, bascule-fashion, six times a day in total and became a celebrated feature of Busan, but in September 1966 its lifting function was halted owing to increasing traffic. On 27 November 2013 it was restored and reopened, widened from four to six lanes, and it now lifts once daily at 2 p.m., regaining its old fame as one of Busan's landmarks. Having shared the joys and sorrows of Busan's citizens since the Japanese colonial period, Yeongdo Daegyo was, after Liberation on 15 August 1945 and the Korean War, a place where refugees exhausted by hardship found some solace for their sorrows and their longing for home. During the war, the vague hope that going to Yeongdo Daegyo might allow them to find relatives filled its vicinity with refugees, and fortune-tellers' shops that listened to their stories and gave counsel did brisk business there; the bridge is thus a structure that has accompanied Korea's modern history while also carrying symbolic meaning for modern Busan. The construction of Yeongdo Daegyo, together with the expansion of Busan Port's cargo-handling facilities and the opening of arterial roads, was an important project in the urban development of modern Busan. In particular, the bridge connected Yeongdo to central Busan by road and enabled tram service to open there, becoming a catalyst for urban growth; it is thus an important historic site testifying to the urban development history of Yeongdo-gu. Beyond the bridge itself, the structures that make up Yeongdo Daegyo also display architectural value. Its abutments are formed of finely dressed granite laid in even courses, with rectangular granite corner stones chamfered in fine detail. In addition, the granite steps on either side of the abutments and the gate piers and railings at the bridge's entrance further enhance its compositional beauty, while Darimok Plaza, the open square at the bridge's entrance, functions as the bridge's "face" and clearly displays the formal characteristics of a modern bridge. Yeongdo Daegyo is the only single-leaf bascule bridge still surviving in Korea today, giving it very high rarity value. It is also unusual in form among bascule bridges in that, unlike typical examples, its lifting mechanism is installed within the quay wall; being without parallel in the history of Korean bridge engineering, it is an extremely important bridge for the study of modern bridge history, and its conservation value is very high.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeongdo-gu, Busan

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물