Man cycles up mind-bending Japanese bridge that's gone viral

A man has cycled up Japan’s Eshima Ohashi bridge, a structure so steep you’ll feel giddy just looking at it.

YouTuber John Daub tackled Eshima Ohashi’s world-famous 6.1 percent gradient armed with just two wheels and some serious thigh power. 

It’s no wonder Daub’s video quickly went viral, seeing as the towering bridge stretches 1.4km and has a width of 11.4 metres, making it the third largest bridge of its kind in the world. 

Looking up at the structure before he started to pedal, Daub quipped: “We’re gonna start to climb, and from this angle, it looks like a stairway to heaven. Or something like that.”

He added: “From the bottom looking up, it’s like staring at the top of a skyscraper.”

Daub also explained: “On the left side, there’s a walkway, but bicycles aren’t allowed to enter that, so we have to stay on this white line, so there’s maybe about 20 centimetres separating me and the car. Or truck.”

Seconds into his ascent, Daub admitted between pants that he was already ‘starting to feel it a little bit’ before confessing: “I just started and I’m tired.”

When Daub was just 100 metres from the top of the bridge, he stammered: “My legs are gone, but the view is awesome.”

YouTube/WaoryuONLYinJAPAN

Once he reached the height of the bridge, Daub hopped off his bike and made the most of the observation point, which looks out over Matsue and Sakaiminato, the cities the bridge connects. 

“It took five minutes to get to the top, and you have quite a view,” said Daub, before whizzing back down the other side. 

The structure, which has been dubbed ‘rollercoaster bridge’ and spans Lake Nakaumi, was designed so that it can rise sharply, allowing ships to pass underneath. 

Watching Daub’s video, you might have noticed that the bridge looks a lot gnarlier from afar, but while the YouTuber was actually riding over the structure, it looked much flatter.

YouTube/WaoryuONLYinJAPAN

Well, last year, TikToker @hecticnick explained why the Eshima Ohashi bridge looks much more daunting to onlookers, pinning it down to an optical illusion. 

The TikToker said: “This bridge in Japan is not what you think it is.

"When viewed from far away it looks impossibly steep, almost like it's a giant cliff and there's no way cars could really be driving across it."

Zooming in on the bridge and showing it from another, much less intense angle, they added: “Once it's viewed up close, you'll see, although it's steep, it's not some giant cliff."

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