13 Coolest Natural Bridges In The World

Everyone knows if you're in the jungle and you want to get from tree A to tree B, you grab a vine, pound your chest a couple of times, make a weird, guttural, jungle-yodel sound, and swing. Except you wouldn't really do that, of course, because the vine might actually break and you'd look ridiculous.

There is at least one place in the world where vines actually are used to go places, but the locals don't swing on them. West Iya Valley in Japan is a land of rivers and gorges, and because it's so remote it was once an obvious place for unsavory types to hide out. The bandits and refugees who made the valley their home needed to build bridges over the river, but being bandits and refugees, it's not like they had a ton of capital to devote to bridge-building projects. So they made bridges out ridiculously long vines they stretched across the river and wound together. According to Atlas Obscura, vine bridges were handy for the refugees because although they had plank flooring, they had no handrails, which made them especially dangerous for the uninitiated to cross. They could also be easily cut down, thus thwarting pursuers.

Today the vine bridges built by the locals are reinforced and have handrails, but they're still a terrifying experience. The biggest vine bridge in Iya is 150 feet long and 50 feet high. You can even cross one for 500 yen.

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