World's Strangest Bridges

Getting to the other side is a lot more fun thanks to these strange bridges that pivot, unroll, and light up.

An old railway bridge that had become an eyesore in Wuppertal, Germany, now surprises passersby with a neon underbelly that looks like a supersize Lego project. In fact, it’s the strange, inspired work of a street artist known as Megx.

• See the World’s Scariest Bridges

Most bridges have a simple mission: to transport people and vehicles from point A to point B in the most efficient way possible. But where is the fun in that? Like Megx, some civil engineers and architects have let their imaginations run free when it comes to designing these deceptively simple spans, producing wonderfully strange bridges that confound, amuse, and sometimes solve complex planning challenges.

Take, for example, the Tianjin Eye Bridge in China, whose six lanes are straddled by one of the world’s largest Ferris wheels, or the Sunken Bridge in the Netherlands, which appears to lead pedestrians through rather than over the water. In Paris, you may soon be able to bounce your way across the Seine: AZC Architects has drawn up a proposal for an inflatable bridge with a trio of giant trampolines.

Many such bridges would make 20th-century artist M. C. Escher—famous for his mind-bending lithographs that challenge perceptions of space and perspective—proud. The son of a civil engineer, Escher happens to have been born in Leeuwarden, the location of one of the craziest bridges we came across. When a ship traveling down the Harlinger Vaart River needs to cross traffic, a mechanical arm removes a 50-square-foot section of road and hoists it aloft like a giant robot flipping a pancake.

Escher recognized that a bridge links two worlds, yet it need not be anchored in the reality of either. Often it’s the pedestrian bridges that take this concept to heart and allow for the most whimsical designs. Free from the pressing needs and load-bearing concerns of commuter vehicles, these bridges pivot, unroll, submerge, and rotate.

While these bridges are marvels of engineering, you don’t need to know a Whipple trapezoidal truss from a Fink truss bridge to appreciate the sense of whimsy that goes into their creation. Read on to discover our picks for the world’s most remarkable bridges: we guarantee you won’t regret making the crossing.

When is a bridge not quite a bridge? When it’s a Ferris wheel, of course. The Tianjin Eye is a 394-foot-tall carnival ride over the Haihe River in northern China. Completed in 2007, the six-lane bridge incorporates 48 passenger capsules, each with a capacity of eight people. One full rotation takes half an hour, creating the perfect diversion for commuters stuck in bridge traffic.

Architecture firm Heatherwick studio rose to the challenge of designing a bridge to span the narrow Grand Union Canal at London’s Paddington Basin—while still allowing ships free passage. The strange, ingenious bridge is made of eight identical segments capable of rolling and unrolling like a party noisemaker. Every Friday at midday the hydraulic-powered construction is activated (regardless of boat traffic) to the amusement of waiting pedestrians.

Building a bridge over troubled waters makes sense. Building a bridge through the very waters you are trying to avoid is just plain crazy. Ro Koster and Ad Kil Architects constructed a remarkable sunken bridge in Halsteren to cross the defensive moat at Fort de Roovere, built in the 1700s to protect the Netherlands from invasion by France and Spain.

Ordinarily, a bridge is the shortest distance between two banks. The Friendship Bridge is no ordinary bridge. Located in the wellness resort town of Yoshi Springs, just outside of Kyoto, this bridge traces out a circle 262 feet in diameter. It was designed by Japanese architects Norihiko Dan and Associates and is meant to add to the contemplative serenity of the resort.

See the World’s Scariest Bridges

In M. C. Escher’s hometown of Leeuwarden stands a bridge that resembles something out of War of the Worlds. When a ship traveling down the Harlinger Vaart River needs to cross traffic, a mechanical arm removes a 50-square-foot section of road and hoists it aloft like a giant robot flipping a pancake.

Why did the crab cross the road? To get to the other side—and join 120 million of his relatives. Christmas Island, a tiny Australian territory 230 miles off the coast of Indonesia, sees an annual migration of red crabs, journeying from their spawning grounds, located inland, to the ocean. The crabs migrate in such staggering numbers that roads become impassable, leading wildlife rangers to erect some of the strangest (and heavily trafficked bridges) on the planet.

Few bridges can boast a wonderful view from their underside. This apparently ordinary span was transformed over a period of four weeks by a street artist known as Megx into what resembles a supersize Lego construction, delivering a bright dose of childhood nostalgia for drivers passing beneath.

A series of 11 locks once raised small ships the 115 feet from the Union Canal to the Forth and Clyde Canal above. When the entire mechanism was disassembled in 1933, this vital shipping link was broken. Seeking to reconnect the two canals, in 2002, British Waterways built the Falkirk Wheel, a strange contraption that allows ships to sail into a sealed bathlike pod that then rotates, bringing the boat to the new water level above.

Connecting two bucolic hilltop parks in busy Singapore, this undulating sculpture of steel ribs resembles a Slinky, with dips and valleys concealing seating and vantage points from which to observe Henderson Road, 118 feet below. The pedestrian-only bridge lights up the night sky.

This would be an ordinary bridge if it were still spanning the River Thames in London, England. What makes this century-old construction preposterous is the fact that in 1968 it was bought by chain-saw magnate Robert McCulloch, disassembled stone by stone, then transported to remote Lake Havasu, where it is now a rather incongruous local landmark (along with other oddities like one-third-scale functioning lighthouses).

By day, nothing appears especially remarkable about the Xiying Rainbow Bridge. But at night it transforms into a double rainbow the likes of which Internet meme celebrity Bear Vasquez (he of the rapturous double rainbow video) can only dream. The neon arch of this pedestrian bridge is reflected in the shimmering lagoon, creating a double arch of intense color.

While this bridge does in fact provide a level surface for the pedestrians and cyclists who cross it, the startling red design looks dangerously tilted, almost as if the structure is sagging or about to flip into the ravine. Credit goes to Rotterdam-based architects West 8 for twisting 400 steel tubes in a dynamic fashion.

The problem: how to design a pedestrian-, bike-, and wheelchair-friendly bridge that can still allow battleships up to 82 feet tall to pass beneath. The solution: an elegant hinging bridge comprising two arches and shaped somewhat like a lemon wedge. The bridge pivots through 40 degrees in just over four minutes, elevating the wide sweep of walkway into an elegant tall double arch—an action that has earned it the nickname The Winking Eye.

The Banpo Bridge, which crosses the Han River in downtown Seoul, features a 760-nozzle fountain that sprays 190 tons of water per minute a distance of up to 50 yards—while illuminated in a rainbow of colors and synchronized to music. Beneath the vehicular carriageway (which, on windy days, may well double as the world’s longest carwash) is a pedestrian walkway that’s often shrouded in fountain mist and—during high rainfall—completely submerged by the Han River.

A dragon makes a fitting architectural motif for a region famous for the fire and brimstone of coal mining. Here, in the Ruhr Valley, such a red scaly creature watches over a 180-yard bridge that connects suburban Recklinghausen with the former mining waste dump of Hoheward, which is gradually being turned into a nature preserve.

Proposed by Dutch firm NL Architects, the Flipper Bridge does more than carry traffic. It links opposing ideologies: mainland China (where they drive on the right) with the island of Hong Kong, where the left side is law. Over the water the bridge separates into two ribbons that form an open figure eight, changing sides in an elegant flow of diplomacy.

New York-based artist Vito Acconci is sensitive to the fact that people tend to pause at the midpoint of a bridge to enjoy the view. That observation inspired his creation of Aiola Island in 2003. This bridge over the Mur River in Graz, Austria, houses at its heart a bar, a coffeehouse, a theater, and a playground in a remarkable cochlea shaped dome made from triangular glass panels.

These remarkable pedestrian bridges don’t need our engineering know-how; they grow naturally from the aerial roots of fig trees. The Megahalaya root bridges thrive in the East Khasi Hills, a remote district of northeast India. To grow your own follow these steps: near the base of a suitably large fig tree, lay a betel nut trunk over the stream you wish to cross; train the fragile young aerial roots over the surface; when they grow to reach the other bank let them take root in the soil and remove the tree trunk. In several years time, you can cross.

Stroll along this overgrown bridge, and you’re more likely to encounter wolves, moose and bears than fellow humans. The wildlife overpass provides safe passage for all manner of creatures to cross the Trans-Canada Highway from one part of the vast Banff National Park to the other. The structure appears to be both man-made yet primitive, rather like a set piece from the film I Am Legend.

This sleek pedestrian bridge appears like a platform for practicing one’s tightrope-walking skills. The construction is part of the winning bid by Steven Holl Architects to revamp the Copenhagen waterfront. Secured to two buildings by a series of cable-stays, the bridge floats 71 yards above the ground and provides an ideal vantage point from which to watch cruise ships pass below.

First dreamed up in 1919, this thousand-yard shipping bridge passes over the Elbe River allowing the Mittelland Canal to connect Berlin with the important industrial area of the Ruhr Valley. Before the water bridge was finished in 2003 (at a cost of $650 million) shipping traffic had to navigate a series of locks and the often unpredictable water levels of the Elbe which sometimes necessitated offloading cargo to gain clearance.

From certain angles the Storseisundet Bridge—part of a popular road-trip route linking small villages along the Atlantic Ocean—seems to vanish in midair. The 850 foot-long simple arch, and accidental optical illusion, was constructed in 1989 and makes a bend in the middle of the span that hides the other half from view. This commercial played up the bridge's drama, capturing a car zooming along as waves crash against the road.

While its arch looks purely ornamental, this style of traditional Japanese bridge is also practical. It allows canal barges to pass underneath and (able-bodied) pedestrians to pass overhead, scaling the sides like a ladder. This particular Moon Bridge was constructed in Japan by Shinshichi Nakatani for the 1894 Midwinter Fair in San Francisco.

Every frigid winter, Mother Nature builds her own bridges across Alaskan lakes and rivers, and locals reinforce them by thickening the ice with a mixture of water, ice chips, and snow. These ice bridges are so strong that they are often used when the route over a man-made bridge cannot support the heavy load of a fully laden semi-trailer.