The Last Inca Rope Bridge, Q’eswachaka, Is Rebuilt Yearly

Every year, high in the Andes Mountains in Peru, a man builds a bridge. The bridge is strong enough to hold the weight of more than one hundred men. But it isn’t made of iron or steel. It’s made of grasses and fibers. It hangs 60 feet above a thundering river.

And the man is not a construction worker or a structural engineer—but he is the only person on earth who knows how to build this particular bridge. That man’s name is Victoriano Arizapana, and he is the heir to a tradition that is over 500 years old.