A ceremony was held Saturday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the world's longest suspension bridge.

The bridge, which has a central span measuring a record 1,991 meters and is 3,911 meters long overall, connects the major port city of Kobe and Awaji Island, both in Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan.

Construction took around 10 years, with work on the bridge completed on schedule in September 1996, despite a major earthquake centered on Awaji Island in January 1995 that damaged part of the structure. The bridge opened to traffic on April 5, 1998.

The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, together with another bridge linking Awaji Island and Tokushima Prefecture on the island of Shikoku, provides a seamless link between Shikoku and Japan's largest main island of Honshu.