National Scout Reserve Pedestrian Bridge Competition

The Tree Bridge is a 700ft cable-stayed steel structure that expresses an artful balance of tension and compression. The concept is inspired by the principles of tensegrity. The compression members are steel masts, or “trees”, supported at their ends by stay cables in tension. Although the masts appear to be vertical supports holding up the bridge, they are in fact suspended above the ground by the tension in the cables. At the lowest point in the gorge, the masts are more than 60ft above the ground, while on the hillside they float as close as 10ft above the ground. Between the ends of the bridge, only two masts extend to the ground.