The Hangang Bridge to be Seoul’s first cultural heritage

The Hangang Bridge, the subway bench mark in front of Bonsingak and the old headquarters of the National Bureau of Statistics have been designated as cultural heritage by the city of Seoul.

Following the implementation of the local heritage act late last year, the nation’s capitall city launched an investigation into public assets designated as Seoul’s future heritage and registered three of them as Seoul’s cultural heritage.

Seoul has decided to designate modern architecture and artifacts on its future heritage list as its cultural heritage if they are more than 50 years old and hold historical, cultural, living, economic or religious value. Existing national cultural heritage or treasures cannot be listed as the city’s heritage.

The city’s first cultural heritage will be the Hangang Bridge, the oldest footbridge along the River Han built in 1917. Bearing bullet marks from the Korean War, the bridge is considered to be proof of Korea’s modern history and of advances in the country’s bridge building technology.


Chang-Kyu Park kyu@donga.com