Entering an era of shrinking population, the space under overhead railway attracts attention as a resource for revitalizing the area, and various utilizing cases are increasing. In Japan, the railway viaduct spread widely contemporaneously with the progress of modern urban planning. However, there has been no prior research that discussed the birth of the space under overhead railway and its utilization plan from the viewpoint of urban planning history.
 This paper aims to clarify how the space under the overhead railway, which runs through the center of Kobe City, was designed in the process of modern urban planning by using the original sources about the arguments among the agencies, organizations and persons involved.
 The problem of overhead railway that appeared in modern Kobe caused intense controversies mainly on the city council in the conviction that the underground way is the “city's policy” and the chamber of commerce, but from the beginning there was not a single "public opinion" in Kobe. The result of adopting the overhead way of national railway and Hankyu Railway reflected that real situation of the Kobe side. This problem proceeded in the change of overhead railway image brought about by the advance of civil engineering technology.
 The decision of adopting the overhead way of national railway greatly affected the way of extension into the center of the city by private railways. The attitudes towards the public business system by the Hanshin Railway and Hankyu Railway were just contrasting. Hankyu's idea that skillfully used the decision of national railway, in particular, greatly changed the circumstances surrounding the subjects involved, which led to the formation of a large-scale space under the parallel tracks of national railway and Hankyu. This paper revealed that the background of this idea was suggested by Dr. Kiichiro Morigaki, a technical official of Kobe City who tried to find a compromise point while the city council's opposition to Hankyu's overhead plan overheated.
 The detailed design of the viaduct was decided through repeated changes of the range, structure and usage as the urban planning projects progressed. Kobe City Office's initial idea of laying the track of municipal streetcar under the viaduct was abandoned due to the progress of the street plan and lack of financial resources, but the range was greatly expanded and the structure was considerably changed suitable for utilizing far beyond the initial expectation of Board of Railway, because of the consistent insistence of the importance of the space under the viaduct from the viewpoint of urban planning by Kobe City Office. Especially, in the most important area between Sannmiya and Kobe the city office patiently sought the way to properly manage the space. Based on Morigaki's argument, the initial report of Hyogo Urban Planning Local Committee that was supposed to be used for public roads was changed to using the part of 4 m wide as sidewalk. Then, publicly controlled space under the viaduct between Sannomiya and Kobe was reserved. This paper showed that the decision at that time became one factor to survive the shopping street formed from Yami-ichi (black market) under the viaduct after the war.

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