Peru's Bridges: Puente a Machu Picchu (1)

Another interesting pedestrian bridge across the Urubamba River on the way to the ruins of Machu Picchu. A pair of short reinforced concrete towers supports steel suspension cables that are anchored at the far sides of the bridge. Steel clamps are attached to the suspension cables and support suspender cables, floor beams, and the timber deck.

This bridge is similar to the inexpensive suspension bridges we saw by Walter Yanez in Ecuador. Perhaps its most interesting feature is the elaborate design of the fabric on the guard rails along the sides of the deck. The pattern appears to be an authentic design of the indigenous Peruvian culture.

The most distinguishing aspect of this area, which may not be obvious from these photos, is how steep and how green the mountain peaks are in this region. I've hiked extensively through the Sierras in California, but I don't recall ever seeing so many steep peaks crowded together as surround Machu Picchu.

Peru's Bridges: Puente a Machu Picchu (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.