Awesome Bridges

Photographer Sylvia Michel captured this awe-inspiring footage walking through the clouds on a cliff-side bridge in Grindewald, Switzerland. The First Cliff Walk allows visitors to walk through some of the world’s most breathtaking vistas and includes this bridge to nowhere that hangs over the valley below. Here it is on a less cloudy day.

Domino queen Lily Hevesh spent the better part of a week setting up this enormous multi-tier bridge using 8,000 individual wood planks. She started with a small prototype of construction techniques, then carefully assembled the 8-foot-tall version. When it was all done, she knocked it all down for our enjoyment.

After fabricating a miniature suspension bridge, Tiny World built a scale model of a railroad bridge based on the design of the CSX A-Line Bridge that spans the James River in Richmond, Virginia. To create the structure, they poured concrete into foam-core molds with wire supports inside.

This unique bridge connects two districts in The Netherlands. Designed by West 8 and fabricated by HCG, the helical truss structure was fabricated from 400 steel tubes which twist a full 90 degrees from one end of the bridge to the other. It was originally painted red, but its current, more natural state also looks very cool.

The Romans built the first bridge across the Thames River in the 2nd century. Over the years, the structure has been replaced several times. In this episode of Unfinished London, host Jay Foreman provides an informative and entertaining exploration of the history of London Bridge, and why one of them is now located in Arizona.

Ouroboros ARQ loves to build miniature structures using full-size construction techniques. For this project, they built a scale version of a suspension bridge, complete with steel-reinforced concrete pillars, and dozens of meticulously-threaded wires to support its paved roadway and guard rails.

The Ruyi Bridge is one of the most interesting bridge designs on the planet. Located in the Shenxianju Scenic Area in Taizhou, China, it features three connected arches – one that rises and two that dip. The two lower bridges are connected by a glass walkway which allows pedestrians to peer down to the forest 459 feet below.

LEGO machine makers The Brick Wall have outdone themselves with their latest construction. This enormous and complex Technic machine is engineered to automatically install a bridge. It first deploys and positions its support towers, then gradually adds the bridge deck and roadway for vehicles to drive over.

Located near Arouca in northern Portugal, this 1693-foot-long pedestrian bridge crosses the River Paiva, offering those who cross it a thrilling journey and a stunning view as they cross the rapidly-flowing river about 600 feet below their feet. Watch this video to see how it was built.

Bridges can vary wildly in terms of strength depending on their structural design. The guys from the Hydraulic Press Channel welded together several miniature bridges from steel, then measured the force applied to each one to see which style is the strongest.

The guys from DD Squad are always doing crazy stunts, and this one is quite the spectacle. Watch as the daredevil squad and their friends Jesse Heffels, FaceTeam, and Greg Roe GTR perform flips, acrobatic tricks, and high dives from a trampoline they rigged under a massive stone arch bridge in Solkan, Slovenia.

The Creative Construction Channel walks us through a truly impressive build – a pint-sized version of a concrete bridge that was built using similar construction techniques to the real deal, with steel bars serving as the support structure for the cement, as well as a paved surface for tiny cars and trucks to ride on.

After assembling the epic LEGO Bugatti Chiron model, The Brick Wall decided his supercar needed a superbridge to go with. He built this impressive roadway from over 32,000 pieces, over the course of 96 hours. He even included LED streetlights for night viewing.

From a distance, Siberia’s Vitim bridge doesn’t look so bad. But once Martin Remiš’ camera gets in close, we see just how iffy the one-lane river crossing looks, with its rickety wood planks and lack of any railings. This snowy bridge they crossed doesn’t look much better.

Next time you drive across a suspension bridge in the winter time, you can thank guys like these for keeping your ride safe. Watch and learn how technicians head to the top of the Port Mann Bridge in frigid British Columbia to remove ice and snow from its 288 cables.

Architects Haim Dotan designed this awe-inspiring bridge to float 984ft. above China’s Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon, offering up to 800 pedestrians incredible thrills as they look straight down to the bottom. Opens 10/2015.

Amsterdam/Beijing-based NEXT architects won the competition for the bridge for the revitalized Meixi Lake district in Changsha, China. The 150-meter-long bridge has a Möbius-inspired design, with multiple undulating paths for pedestrians.

Minneapolis artist HOTTEA livens up urban environments with words and designs made of yarn. On a recent trip to New York he adorned the pedestrian tunnel of the Williamsburg Bridge with a 2,000 thread rainbow. More pics here.

Since 2008, EarthCam has captured over 2 million images of the construction of the new Eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Watch as it goes from nothing to a fully-assembled roadway in four minutes.

The old bridge over Lake Marble Falls met its maker as the Texas DOT conducted a controlled demolition of the structure. Photographer Kirk Drummond captured the explosion in glorious 300fps slow-mo with a RED EPIC camera.

This incredible bridge in the city of Da Nang, Vietnam is shaped in the form of a massive 1860+ foot-long dragon. And yes, it actually breathes fire. Why don’t we get bridges like this here in the States?

The world’s largest LED sculpture is now live. The Bay Lights’ 25,000 LEDs form an ever-changing display that’s 1.8mi long and up to 500ft. high along the West Span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

Tired of the Golden Gate getting all the attention, the Bay Lights Project will outfit one side of the San Francisco Bay Bridge with 25,000 LEDs to turn the landmark into the largest light sculpture yet.

A beautiful pedestrian bridge in Portugal’s city of Covilhã, JLCG Arquitectos’s wood-lined structure spans a distance of about 721 feet, providing a dramatic walk worth slowing down for.

While it’s doesn’t have twin helixes, Singapore’s Helix Bridge at Mariana Bay is equally dramatic, with its curved, fluid lines, covered with thousands of colorful LEDs for nighttime illumination.