Living Root Bridges

India

There’s a type of tree in Meghalaya, India that the locals use to build bridges, turning nature into their advantage. They train the roots of a rubber fig tree to grow along channels in the ground and across rivers using the hollowed out trunk of a betel nut tree. Once the roots hit the soil on the other side, they take root. It can take close to a decade for the bridge to become fully functional, but once it does, it’s incredibly strong.