October 06, 2021

The Fragility of Peru’s Rope Bridges The ancient practice of making hanging bridges has existed for a long time in Peru—perhaps going back as far as the Wari culture, which thrived from 600–1000. At one time, dozens of such bridges are thought to have connected communities across gorges and rivers. Today only a few remain, mainly for the sake of tourists, and even they are falling into disrepair.  READ MORE → A Daring Escape In October 1964, if you knew exactly where to look, you would find a handful of people escaping East Germany via Tunnel 57, the deepest and longest subterranean passage beneath the Berlin Wall. It’s a real Cold War thriller, complete with code words: In the secret network of people helping escapees flee to West Berlin via the tunnel, men were “beans,” and women “peas.” Innocuous as this code seems, it doesn’t quite reflect the harrowing events of October 4, where an escape from Tunnel 57 left one man dead and others scrambling for their lives. Nearly 60 years after that fateful night, one survivor shares his story of risk and freedom. READ MORE → TULSA, OKLAHOMA The Center of the Universe Downtown Tulsa contains a trippy, mysterious acoustic phenomenon. This small concrete circle in the middle of a larger circle of bricks is a private amplified echo chamber—if you stand in the middle of the circle and make a noise, the sound is echoed back several times louder than it was made. As the legend goes, a foghorn could be going off in the center of the circle and those on the outside wouldn’t hear it. READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Brewing Brides In 1621, Englishwoman Allice Burges stepped off a ship and onto American soil. She was one of 57 women “imported” from England by the Virginia Tobacco Company to join the early settlers of the Chesapeake Bay. These women came from well-off families, all recommended for their skills in “huswifery” and many were young widows or orphans. Some came to find a “natural defender”, while others may have been chasing adventure. Whatever their reasons for coming to America, the women had been recruited by the Virginia Tobacco Company partly because they possessed skills that the male settlers lacked—such as the skill of making alcohol. READ MORE → LOVELAND, COLORADO Faces Bridge From the surface, Faces Bridge looks like any other in Loveland. But wander down the hiking trail that passes beneath the bridge to see a collection of bronze faces hanging on the wall. The faces are all sorts of shapes and sizes. There’s even an alien. READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Unusual Fig Locations When Italian immigrants poured into U.S. port cities in the late 1800s, they brought seemingly unassuming bits of stick. These were fig trees, which took root in unexpected cities, where cold-weather climates seemed hostile to the plant. Yet the trees grew. Today, you can still identify historically Italian neighborhoods by the presence of backyard fig trees, and the Italian Gardens Project, a living archive of Italian-American gardens and their keepers, is on a quest to create a living library of these backyard gardens. READ MORE → LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Underground Tunnels of Los Angeles While the rest of the United States was forced to go dry during the Prohibition era, underneath Downtown Los Angeles the party never stopped. Despite prohibition laws, 11 miles of service tunnels became passageways to basement speakeasies with innocuous fronts above ground, all while the Mayor’s office ran the supply of hootch. READ MORE → SPONSORED BY BANFF & LAKE LOUISE TOURISM Banff Wildlife Crossings At a glance, these just seem like simple bridges across a highway. But in reality, they’re so much more: this is the Banff Wildlife Crossing in Alberta, Canada, and it's meant for safe traversal for Banff National Park’s many creatures. Featuring a grassy bridge dotted with trees and flowers, this unique bridge has been a massive success for the safety of the park’s wildlife, and for scientists and researchers looking to study the animal traffic, where they’ve observed lynx, bears, beavers, and toads, among others. LEARN MORE →