Rotting wooden planks, held aloft by rusty bits of wire, stretch out in front of you.
You reach for a railing to steady yourself but all you find are two threadbare ropes.
The howling wind blows the rickety footbridge from side to side.
Credit: Courtesy of Getty Images
Somewhere below you lies the forest floor you don’t even know how far.
And crossing over them can be the ultimate in adventure travel.
Surprisingly, not all of these bridges are old and dilapidated.
Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd / Alamy
Is this an irrational fear?
Gephyrophobia the fear of bridges is an accepted psychological diagnosis.
The bridges along the route toColombia’sNational Archeological Park of Tierradentro are a good example.
Peggy Gair
Aiguille du Midi Bridge, France
Don’t look down.
Fortunately, the bridge itself is short, making for an easy escape if acrophobia sets in.
Where:The summit of Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif, near Chamonix.
Prisma/Gerth Roland / Alamy
Stats:9,209 above the valley floor.
Completed in 1929, the bridge didn’t have stabilizing wind cables until 1982.
Where:Royal Gorge, Colorado, over the Arkansas River.
National Geographic Image Collection / Alamy
Stats:955 feet above the gorge; 1,260 feet long.
But it still provides an adrenaline rush.
Where:Trift Glacier, near the town of Gadmen in the Swiss Alps.
Agencja Fotograficzna Caro / Alamy
Stats:328 feet high; 560 feet long.
It used to be even scarier.
Where:Near Ballintoy in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Taylor McIntyre/Travel + Leisure
Stats:66 feet long; 98 feet above the rocks below.
Where:North Vancouver, British Columbia, across the Capilano River.
Stats:450 feet long; 230 feet high.
Mario Valenzuela
Mackinac Bridge, Michigan
Taylor McIntyre/Travel + Leisure
Where:Between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas.
Stats:5 miles long; 155 feet above the water.
Fortunately, steel cables suspended from two towers bring a greater feeling of safety.
Scott Smith/Corbis
Stats:1,030 feet long; 2 feet wide; 327 feet above a gorge.
Where:Spanning Chesapeake Bay to connect Maryland’s eastern and western shores.
Stats:4.3 miles long; 186 feet high at its highest point.
Christopher Buchanan
Where:Various points across the Mekong Delta at the southern tip of Vietnam.
Stats:These bridges are built by hand by local residents and vary from town to town.
Newer ones are made of concrete.
Jonathan Blair/Corbis
Where:In the village of Hussaini in Northern Pakistan, crossing the Hunza River.
Stats:660 feet long, hanging 100 feet above the raging river.
While it may be sturdier, we still wouldn’t want to be on it during a storm.
Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau
Where:The Florida Keys, connecting the Middle and Lower Keys.
Stats:7 miles long; 65 feet high.
It’s not exactly brand-new; this 3/4-mile-long teak bridge was built nearly 200 years ago.
Juergen Ritterbach / Alamy
Where:In Mandalay, connecting opposite banks of Taungthaman Lake.
Stats:3/4 miles long; 15 feet high.
That’s where you’ll find especially hair-raising views of the rushing water directly below.
imagebroker / Alamy
Where:Connecting Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island, in Deception Pass State Park.
Stats:Combined, the two spans are 1,486 feet in length; 180 feet above the water.
Where:Tokushima, over the Iya-gawa River.
GYRO PHOTOGRAPHY/amanaimages/Corbis
Stats:147 feet long; 46 feet high.
Where:Along the South Klondike Highway near Skagway.
Stats:300-foot-long cantilever bridge, located about 110 feet over the gorge.
Ron Niebrugge / Alamy
Canopy Walk, Ghana
These footbridges soar above the forest floor in Ghana’s Kakum National Park.
Oh yes, and you’re 130 feet off the forest floor.
Where:Kakum National Park.
A M Seward / Alamy
Stats:1,080 feet long; 130 feet high.
(Once you reach roughly the eight-mile mark, say goodbye to land visibility.)
Where:Across Lake Pontchartrain between the towns of Metairie and Mandeville.
Robert Holmes/CORBIS
Stats:24 miles long; 16 feet above water.
Where:Crossing the Tarn Valley, near Millau in southern France.
Stats:1.5 miles long; 1,104 feet from the valley floor to the peak of its tallest mast.
1Apix / Alamy
