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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges
Slide Nr 1From high design to dizzying heights, from feats of modern engineering to incredible ancestral building techniques, these pedestrian bridges are anything but, well, pedestrian.
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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges.
Slide Nr 2Moses Bridge in Halsteren, The Netherlands – When 17th-century Fort De Roovere near Halsteren in the Netherlands was renovated in 2010, the fortress’s moat was also deepened to make it more distinguishable. Studio RO&AD Architecten, tasked with devising a method of crossing the moat, felt that building a conventional bridge would be tantamount to thumbing their nose at the moat’s original purpose – so they got creative. The Moses Bridge is made completely out of pre-treated wood and is ‘sunken’ into the moat so as to be invisible from a distance. Despite the bridge’s biblical name, there’s no need to worry about any big floods; the water level is controlled by adjustable dams, and there’s a pump in case of overflow. [Photo: Digital Eye/Wikimedia Commons]
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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges.
Slide Nr 3Henderson Waves Bridge in Singapore – The Lion City is home to more than its fair share of gawk-able footbridges, but this one stands out both form and function: 274 metres long and 36 metres high, the Henderson Waves Bridge connects Telok Blangah Hill Park with Mount Faber Park, undulating over the treetops with its steel arches and Balau wood panels. Pedestrians can enjoy a jog, a stroll or simply sit a spell on the built-in wooden benches, day or night – the bridge is illuminated with LED lighting come dusk. [Photo: Zairon/Wikimedia Commons]
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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges.
Slide Nr 4High Trestle Trail Bridge in Madrid, Iowa, US – Another contender for a nighttime stroll is this trippy footbridge in the midwestern US, spanning the Des Moines River Valley and connecting a 40-kilometre cycling and hiking trail between the towns of Woodward and Ankeny. In a nod to the region’s coal mining history, a series of tilted steel cribs straddles the 800-metre-long bridge to emulate a mine shaft. When the sun sets, the beams are lit up by blue LEDS for a sci-fi effect. [Photo: Jason Mrachina/Flickr]
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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges.
Slide Nr 5Simone-de-Beauvoir Footbridge in Paris, France – Paris is celebrated for its many storied ponts over the River Seine, but not all of its notable bridges hail from the history books. The Passerelle Simone-de-Beauvoir opened in 2006, linking the 12th and 13th arrondissements between the National Library of France on the river’s left bank and Bercy Park on the right bank. At 304 metres long, the bridge’s two lateral sections allow pedestrians to cross over busy highways on either river bank, while the middle section bows elegantly upward to create a wave effect. [Photo: Rog01/Flickr]
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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges.
Slide Nr 7Puente de la Mujer in Buenos Aires, Argentina – Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava is the mind behind this famous Buenos Aires landmark: a 170-metre-long bridge in the Puerto Madero district that rotates 90 degrees to allow passage for boats. Its unusual asymmetrical design, featuring a single mast fitted with cables to support the part of the bridge that swings open, has been likened to everything from a harp to a fishhook. Calatrava, however, is clear: The bridge represents a couple dancing the tango. This is Argentina, after all. [Photo: Maximiliano Buono/Flickr]
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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges.
Slide Nr 8Cirkelbroen Bridge in Copenhagen, Denmark – Look from above, and you’ll see a remarkable design composed of five circular platforms. Look from street level, and you’ll see five masts with cables, mimicking the effect of a group of sailboats in the water. Renowned artist Olafur Eliasson designed this distinctive bridge spanning Copenhagen’s Christianshavns Kanal to be like crossing the water by walking from boat to boat in a harbour – and to offer a space where passersby can slow down, take a break and meet up with one another. [Photo: Susanne Nilsson/Flickr]
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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges.
Slide Nr 12Webb Bridge in Melbourne, Australia – This alluring construction, joining a decommissioned railway bridge with the Yarra River’s southern bank, is one of many urban renewal projects that have reshaped the city’s Docklands district over the past couple of decades. Sporting a striking steel lattice tunnel and a sinuous shape inspired by aboriginal eel traps, Webb Bridge is the product of a collaboration between Denton Corker Marshall architecture firm and Melbourne artist Robert Owen.
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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges.
Slide Nr 13Umshiang Double Decker Living Root Bridge near Māwsynrām, Meghalaya, India – Human ingenuity isn’t always about fancy architecture and flashy designs. Just look at the Khasi people of northwestern India, living in one of the wettest places in the world; they receive about 11,872 millimetres of rainfall annually. Unable to construct bridges out of wood for fear of decay, the people here came up with a clever solution: use the roots of rubber trees. The practice of shaping living roots to form bridges that can hold human weight is thought to be nearly two centuries old; this particular structure – with a 3-kilometre-long lower bridge, and an upper bridge 20 metres in length – took 15 years to craft. [Photo: Ashwin Kumarg/Wikimedia Commons]
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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges.
Slide Nr 16BP Pedestrian Bridge in Chicago, Illinois, USA – Bridging two green urban oases with a high-design pedestrian-friendly walkway? That’s what we like to hear. This Frank Gehry-designed footbridge stretches across Columbus Drive to link up Maggie Daley Park with Millennium Park (home to another Gehry creation, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion). The panels of brushed stainless steel not only enhance the illusion of a giant 285-metre snake winding across the highway, but they also shield passersby from the noise of the traffic below. [Photo: Torsodog/Wikimedia Commons]
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Bucket List: The World’s Most Amazing Footbridges.
Slide Nr 17Cầu Vàng ‘Golden Bridge’ near Da Nang, Vietnam – This curious construction in the Bà Nà Hills resort area of central Vietnam seems to be resting in a pair of (hopefully benevolent) giant hands. Though primarily a tourist attraction, the bridge does serve a higher purpose: it connects the cable car to the gardens, providing visitors with seriously scenic views along the way. Worth a stroll for the panoramas and the Insta snaps, if nothing else. [Photo: xiquinhosilva/Wikimedia Commons]
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