Bridge or Landscape? You be the Judge

Jones & Jones Architecture and a landscape architecture team from Seattle blur the lines between structure and natural land with the Vancouver Land Bridge.

Connecting the Columbia River with Fort Vancouver, the pedestrian walkway commemorates the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

The bridge, located across the six-lane State Highway 14 in Vancouver, Washington, provides a stunning view of the river and surrounding area.

With sustainability in mind, all of the bridge’s rainwater is canalized to an underground storage pipe that feeds the bridge’s native plants, according to Landscape Architects Network.

And what might seem like a simple design was anything but: The curved designed required 20 retaining walls.

The team used native plants such as Red Alder, Pacific dogwood, Oregon white oak, California oatgrass, small fescue, long-stolon sedge, slender rush and other plants and shrubs.