Drive the Trans-Canada Highway through Banff National Park, and you'll pass under what looks like an ordinary overpass. Concrete arch, guardrails, nothing out of the ordinary... right?
On closer inspection, the bridge has no lanes, traffic, or cars; in fact, the bridge is covered in trees!
That's because this bridge isn't for cars; it's for bears!
A Highway Problem With a Very Green Solution
The Trans-Canada cuts straight through some of the busiest wildlife habitat in North America, and for years the math was brutal: animals needed to get to the other side, and a four-lane highway was in the way.
Wolves, elk, and bears were being struck by vehicles at a rate nobody could live with — least of all the animals. So Banff built them their own roads.
Six Overpasses. Eighty Percent Fewer Collisions.
Six of the park's crossings are overpasses that arc directly over the highway, planted with trees and native vegetation so they read as forest floor rather than infrastructure. An elk stepping onto one doesn't experience a bridge; it experiences more woods.
Drivers barely notice, and the animals absolutely do. Collisions along the protected stretches have dropped by 80 percent!
Get Wired Into Weird
Banff's bear bridges are just one stop packed into Ripley's Believe It or Not! Wired Into Weird!
Ripley's brand-new annual book is available for pre-order now. Get your copy before it hits shelves this fall, and find out what else made the cut.