The Eshima Ohashi bridge in Japan is not as steep as it appears in images circulating widely on the internet.
Pictures of the bridge show cars travelling along an incredibly steep road deck, but it is mostly an illusory effect caused by photographing the bridge from a distance with a telephoto lens.
The fixed-frame bridge crosses Nakaumi lake and connects the city of Matsue in Shimane Prefecture and Sakaiminato in Tottori Prefecture. While the bridge height does peak at its center, the road gradient is only 6.1% on the Shimane side and 5.1% on the opposite end.
