Root Bridges

A precedent for the more recent Arbo-Architecture, arborsculpture, or pooktre the Root Bridges of Cherrapungee are much like they sound, a veg.itectural creation of tree roots functionally impelled to grow across rivers and other crossings. Some info about these via a blog (root bridges) and the original source Atlas Obscura: "In the depths of northeastern India, in one of the wettest places on earth, bridges aren't built - they're grown... The Ficus elastica produces a series of secondary roots from higher up its trunk and can comfortably perch atop huge boulders along the riverbanks, or even in the middle of the rivers themselves."


:: image via Atlas Obscura

"The War-Khasi, a tribe in Meghalaya... simply grow their bridges. In order to make a rubber tree's roots grow in the right direction - say, over a river - the Khasis use betel nut trunks, sliced down the middle and hollowed out, to create root-guidance systems"


:: image via Atlas Obscura

Before you think of the sketch factor in these bridges - they are pretty amazing indigenous feats of engineering: "The root bridges, some of which are over a hundred feet long, take ten to fifteen years to become fully functional, but they're extraordinarily strong - strong enough that some of them can support the weight of fifty or more people at a time. In fact, because they are alive and still growing, the bridges actually gain strength over time - and some of the ancient root bridges used daily by the people of the villages around Cherrapunjee may be well over five hundred years old."


:: image via Atlas Obscura

A YouTube video offers a feel of what its like on the bridge crossing.



Thanks Bill Badrick (purveyor of the modern vegitectural bridge) for this one... cool stuff.