Live Bridges - Amazing Bio-Engineering In Chirapunji

We  can see amazing bio engineering in Chirapunji, one of the wettest places on Earth, in the depths of northeastern India. Here the bridges are not built by human. They are grown automatically from the roots of the Ficus elastica tree. These trees produce secondary roots from its higher up trunk which can comfortably rest on the boulders along the river.

The War-Khasis, a tribe in Meghalaya noticed this tree and its powerful roots and realized the use of these roots to cross the river. The root bridges takes ten to fifteen years to act completely and some of these are more than hundred feet long. As the roots grows the bridge gain strength over time. Some of these are over five hundred years old.

See The Amazing Live Bridges
via:Root Bridges