By MOOK Travel & Lifestyle Network Editorial Team

With a history of over a hundred years, the old Datree Iron Bridge will be revitalized this year and transformed into the first "skywalk" that allows the public to get close to and learn about a national historic site. As a national second-grade historic site, the old Gaoping Iron Bridge was built in 1913 (Taisho 2nd year), spanning the Gaoping River. It stretches from Pingtung City in the east to Daxue District in Kaohsiung City in the west, located between Liukuaicuo Station and Jioujiutang Station, with a total length of 1,526 meters and a width of 8 meters. It features 24 piers and a single-track railway. At the time, it was the longest bridge in Asia and remains the only bridge in Taiwan listed as a national historic site.

Lu Yuanhua, leader of the Datree Community Empowerment Project, said, "The 'Shihmen River Iron Bridge,' completed in 1913, was known as the 'Longest Bridge in the East' during the Japanese colonial period. After being decommissioned in 1992, it has endured multiple floods and storms, resulting in the current broken bridge scenery. Its long-term closure and inaccessibility are truly regrettable."

The Urban Development Bureau stated that securing the revitalization of the old iron bridge was no easy feat. The renovation of a national historic site involves strict engineering restrictions. Minister Shih Kuo-long of the Ministry of Culture personally led a team of renowned historic preservation scholars to conduct an on-site survey. After multiple reviews, the revitalization and reuse plan was finally approved last November. The project also successfully secured a NT$20 million construction subsidy from the Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency, with construction beginning in mid-January this year.

The revamped old iron bridge not only restores the bridgehead fortifications but also adds a 307-meter skywalk. Interpretive signs will be installed to showcase the bridge’s valuable historical legacy, transforming it into Kaohsiung’s first aerial railway landscape walkway. In the future, visitors will be able to stroll along the old iron bridge and admire the vast 120-hectare expanse of the Gaoping River Wetlands’ scenic ecology from above, while also experiencing the unique sensation of hearing the roar of trains passing along the main line up close.