Living Root Bridges And The Double Decker Root Bridge, Cherrapunjee, Meghalaya India

The living root bridges of Cherapunji are made from the ficus elastia tree which grows a series of secondary roots which extend to large distances. Since root bridges are alive they keep on growing stronger with time. Some of them extend to the distance of 100 meters. The khasi tribes of Meghalaya channelize the roots of this tree through the hollowed out beetelnut trunks over the obstacles and across the rivers where they are allowed to take roots in the soil forming natural bridges. It might take 10 to 15 years for these bridges to become functional and are strong enough to carry the weight of 50 people at a time and some of the bridges in that area may be well over 500 years old one such bridge is the Umishiang Double-Decker Root Bridge which is believed to be the only one of its kind in the world. This bridge is actually two bridges staked one over the other.