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BP Bridge
Millennium Park, Chicago
Millennium Park has become a favourite among Instagrammers, thanks to public art like Anish Kapoor’s reflective bean-shaped Cloud Gate sculpture. The striking design of Frank Gehry’s first-ever bridge rivals these large-scale works. The 925-foot walkway, sheathed with scale-like metal plates, snakes along from the park to the Daley Bicentennial Plaza. Not only is it a convenient way to rise above traffic-clogged Columbus Drive while delivering city skyline and lakefront views, it also muffles the noise from cars below.
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Capilano Suspension Bridge
Vancouver, Canada
The bridge, suspended over Capilano Canyon, just north of Vancouver, dates from 1889 and was constructed simply of hemp rope and cedar planks. If vertigo starts to set in as you walk the 450-foot-long, 230-foot- high span, take heart from the knowledge that steel cables embedded in concrete now shore it up. Besides, it’s a well-trod path taken by many of the 700,000-plus folks who visit the park annually. Other, more recent attractions include the glass-bottomed CliffWalk and Treetops Adventure, a series of viewing platforms amid old-growth trees.
Tilikum Crossing
Portland, Oregon
Portland’s first new bridge in 40 years makes room for foot traffic, bikes, light-rail trains, buses, streetcars...all modes of transport except cars. Tilikum means ‘people’ in the local Chinook language, and the structure links two former industrial neighborhoods where Portlanders increasingly choose to live and hang out (the South Waterfront and Central Eastside). Yet it also pays tribute to nature. The white cables’ angles mimic the outline of Mount Hood, and osprey-nesting poles await at both ends. The LED lighting even changes according to the Willamette River’s temperature, height and speed.
Webb Bridge
Melbourne, Australia
Local artist Robert Owen and architects Denton Corker Marshall came up with
a weblike design inspired by aboriginal
fishing traps and baskets. They incorporated elements of the original rail bridge to create this updated version, across the Yarra River
in Melbourne’s burgeoning Docklands area. (Take a breather at one of WTC Wharf ’s alfresco riverfront restaurants.) Since its 2004 debut, Webb Bridge has attracted pedestrians, cyclists and the occasional wedding party posing for photos within the bridge’s cocoon.
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Puente de la Mujer
Buenos Aires, Argentina
For his first project in Latin America, Spanish starchitect Santiago Calatrava modelled a bridge on the silhouette of a couple in a tango lunge. But making that connection takes a stretch of the imagination; at first glance
it’s more likely to bring to mind a harp. Still, Puente de la Mujer (Bridge of the Woman) became an instant icon when it opened in 2001. It also fit right in with the revitalised Puerto Madero neighborhood, where the streets are named for notable women and stylish porteños come to play at night, when the white bridge is illuminated.
Moses Bridge
Halsteren, Netherlands
Much like its biblical namesake, this bridge parts the water—specifically, the moat leading up to Fort de Roovere, one of a
series of 17th-century fortresses in the southwest Netherlands. Moses Bridge grants access to the historic site while creating an optical illusion that appears to preserve the traditional purpose of a moat: hindering enemy access. (The span, which is even with the water, effectively vanishes when seen from a distance; head on it looks like a narrow trench.) Dutch firm RO&AD used a nontoxic coating to waterproof the wood and installed pumps to prevent any flooding of biblical proportions.
ENDLESS VACATION 7