Even ordinary bridges are complex structures, but add in multiple levels,  undulating ribbons of steel, elements that dip into the water or roads that split into scissor-like blades and you’ve got quite a dynamic feat of engineering. Some of those potential feats are a little more achievable than others. These 14 (more!) bridge concepts include a few innovative designs that are actually going to be built, while others have been deemed ‘too crazy’ to ever be real.

Entwined Ribbon Bridge for China

The competition this concept was shortlisted for has been canceled, so it may never be achieved in physical form. Denton Corker Marshall architects designed this bridge for Jinsha Lake in Hangzhou, with one ribbon offering a flat surface for cyclists, one rising into the air to offer various views, and a third decorative ribbon winding between the first two.

Tulip Bridge for Amsterdam

The ‘petals’ of this wooden bridge blossom and unfold in various configurations throughout the day, variously allowing pedestrians to cross the water or, if they so desire, jump in. Designed by MLBS Architects, the Tulip Bridge functions as a symbolic landmark for Amsterdam. When all of its petals are flat, it makes up a large plaza with plenty of room for the flow of pedestrians, but when all of the petals are raised (except for one that allows entry) it can turn into an exhibition space.

Bay Bridge Tourist Park

The September 2nd, 2013 opening of the new East Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge made the old one obsolete: so what to do with it? Some have called for it to be broken up and made into housing, others want to see it converted into a public park. Architects Rael San Fratello have a few tongue-in-cheek designs taking these ideas into consideration. How about bike paths, combing walls, outdoor cinemas, hotel rooms and a giant swimming pool? Together, these ideas may be a little over the top, but they present a few intriguing possibilities.

Habitable Bridge for Seville, Spain

A sinuous bridge mimicking the waves of the river below it could act as a cultural center of Seville, Spain. This concept incorporates two layers – a sunny, grassy surface on top, and a shaded area with stepped seating closer to the water. The proposal also incorporates an existing tobacco factory, renovating it into an auditorium with a ground level piazza.

Parametric Cloud Bridge

This design doesn’t exactly conform to the general idea of what a bridge is, and should be. Unusual and unexpected, ‘Cloudbridge’ by Arturo Tedeschi architects creates a non-linear path between two points. The shape was determined by an algorithm that produces a cloud-shaped grid balancing the asymmetric loads of the footbridge.

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Wild Water Crossings 14 Innovative Bridge Concepts

While other bridges just go up and down or stay stationary, these 12 remarkable structures unfurl, tilt, rotate, drop down below the surface of the water and even lay and remove bridges at the push of a button – and then zoom away. These architectural feats include both innovative land-based bridges that move and jaw-dropping mobile military bridge vehicles.

M60A1 Armored Vehicle Landing Bridge

(image via: wikimedia commons)

Armed forces advance across uneven terrain, suddenly coming upon a chasm that their vehicles just can’t cross. What to do? Deploy the awesome M60A1, a vehicle-launched mobile bridge that can span nearly 60 feet. This folding portable bridge is transported by a tank and scissors out to its full length with the help of a hydraulic system.

Custom LEGO Bridge Vehicle

(images via: gadget review, technabob)

A custom LEGO vehicle by Peer Kreuger called the Stilzkin EXT3 Bridge Launcher mimics real military designs like the MTU-72. It first deploys a bridge that it carries on its back, arching it across a chasm; then it crosses the bridge and moves aside so other vehicles can pass. The bridge is then retracted and re-loaded.

Rolling Bridge by Thomas Heatherwick

(images via: boredborg)

Unfurling gracefully from a wheel-like octagon to a flat, usable bridge, this elegant creation by designer Thomas Heatherwick was installed at London’s Paddington Basin in 2004. The eight hinged sections include hydraulic cylinders concealed in vertical posts; the bridge curls until its two ends join to let boats pass.

Hedge Passage: Bruggenhoofd Chabot

(image via: dezeen)

Why do something so simple and boring as cutting a hole through a hedge for a passage, when you could build a temporary portable bridge instead? Bruggenhoofd Chabot was also, unsurprisingly, based on armored military vehicles; it created a shortcut from the street to the garden of the Chabot Museum in Rotterdam.

Inflatable Ball Bridge

(images via: jber.af.mil)

What’s the military to do when a gap is just too broad to span with a conventional bridge vehicle? Inflate a bunch of balls and top them with sections of road, of course. The Lightweight Modular Causeway System was first tested in 2010 and may be used for earthquake response when other structures are damaged.

Portable Bridge Sculpture by Helene Brandt

(images via: helenebrandt)

Sculptor Helene Brandt produces designs heavily inspired by urban architecture, and bridges in particular. The Portable Bridge, completed in 1983, calls to mind a Victorian version of today’s mobile bridge vehicles, with two rolling wheels and a long extension that can function as a walkway over water.

Russian MTU-72 Armored Bridgelayer

(images via: military today)

Trenches and water obstacles won’t stop the MTU-72, an armored bridgelayer introduced by the Soviet Army in 1974. Based on a medium-sized battle tank, this design folds out a horizontal cantilevered bridge, as opposed to a vertical bridge that could easily be spotted by the enemy from far away. It can span a gap of nearly 60 feet and takes just 3 minutes to deploy.

Swing Bridge on the River Tyne

(images via: wikimedia commons, thunderchild7)

Rather than pulling up vertically, like most bascule-style drawbridges, the Swing Bridge over the River Tyne in England rotates from its position spanning the river into a vertical position on its own artificial concrete island, allowing boats to pass on either side.  There are many similar swing bridges in use throughout the world, including Government Bridge across the Mississippi River and the Pyrmont Bridge of Sydney, Australia.

Gateshead Millennium Tilt Bridge

(image via: wikimedia commons)

When lowered, the Gateshead Millennium on the River Tyne in England features a curving span for pedestrians and cyclists, supported by cables running from an arch overhead. But when it needs to move aside in order to let ships and boats up to 82 feet tall to pas beneath it, it rotates 40 degrees, taking just about 4.5 minutes to reach its full extension. It’s been nicknamed the “Blinking Eye Bridge” for its appearance during this maneuver.

Corinth Canal Submersible Bridge

(image via: wikimedia commons)

Let’s just say that a really, really, unbelievably tall ship needs to pass through a waterway. So tall, that a traditional drawbridge just wouldn’t cut it. A submersible bridge, like the Corinth and Isthmia Bridges that cross the Corinth Canal in Greece, actually drops down over 26 feet beneath the surface of the water so that boats can pass over rather than under the deck.

Armored Vehicle-Launched Bridge

(images via: army-guide, armedforces-int)

Insanely long, the LEGUAN Armored Vehicle-Launched Bridge can span up to 85 feet, and multiple units can be used to create even longer tandem bridging. It’s fully automatic with electronic controls and it takes just a single operator to lay the bridges in less than five minutes. With a few pieces of extra equipment, it can even be turned into a ferry.

Amphibious Floating Bridge and Ferry System

(image via: bharat-rakshak.com)

Other military bridgelayers have to deploy their bridges and then cross them with their own vehicles to get to the other side, but what if they could just zoom right into a body of water? This floating bridge developed by the Indian army can travel on land or in water, using massive flotation devices to keep it aloft so that other vehicles can cross.

Spanning valleys and waterways, bridges perform a basic but essential function: getting us from one side to the other. But what if we expanded on that purpose, inserting everything from opera halls and vertical gardens to entire cities into the design? These 13 bridge concepts stretch beyond the boundaries of traditional design, creating bridges that are multi-purpose or simply astonishingly unusual.

Paik Nam Jun Media Bridge, South Korea

(images via: design boom)

Why should bridges be limited to traffic alone? This incredible concept for the Han River in Seoul imagines the bridge as an essential part of the city itself, filled with activity and attractions including a museum, library, and IT offices. People can even arrive via water taxi. The design, by Planning Korea, has a ‘skin’ covered in solar panels that would also function as a massive canvas for art and videos.

Wind Tunnel Bridge

(image via: treehugger)

Could bridges, which are often positioned over waterways that could act as wind corridors, be used to harvest energy? This concept by Michael Jantzen puts a footbridge to work, equipping it with a series of turbines that turn around pedestrians as they walk through it.

London Bridge as Inhabited Vertical Farm

(image via: inhabitat)

London Bridge has been reincarnated several times already, and someday soon, it will be due for a refresh. Will the 21st-century version be a vision of sustainable urban living, with solar-powered spires covered in vertical farms towering into the air? Chetwood Architects’ proposal would harness solar and wind power, collect rainwater, grow and sell food and even house markets, cafes, restaurants and residences.

Informal Bridge City for Italy

(images via: evolo)

Those afraid of heights would want to steer clear of this city-in-a-bridge concept by Ja Studio, modeled after the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Created for a contest that aims to identify a creative new use for a decommissioned highway between Salerno and Reggio Calabria in Italy, the proposal places a precarious new urban center onto existing infrastructure to not only provide amazing views but have a small impact upon the ecology of the surrounding landscape.

The Hoover Dam Re-imagined, Nevada & Arizona

(images via: evolo)

At the Hoover Dam, the sheet of water pouring over a face of simple concrete is without a doubt the main attraction. Can you imagine if instead it looked like this, with the water entering a series of containers “to engage directly with visitors?” Designer Yheu-Shen Chua gives the iconic structure a shockingly futuristic makeover that would certainly be controversial if it ever saw the light of day.

LM Harbor Gateway by Steven Holl, Copenhagen

(image via: steven holl)

First prize winner in a competition to design a new harbor entrance to the city of Copenhagen and recipient of the 2010 Progressive Architecture Award, ‘LM Harbor Gateway’ by Steven Holl Architects features two towers, each with its own cable-supported bridge, meeting in the middle in an arrow shape reminiscent of the prow of a ship. The bridge serves as a passageway between two piers and as a public overlook, and the towers contain public facilities like cafes and galleries.

CPH Arch by 3XN, Copenhagen

(image via: e-architect.co.uk)

Another proposal for the Copenhagen harbor, designed by 3XN Architects, takes an entirely different tact. As curvilinear as the Holl design is geometric, the ‘CPH Arch’ – which serves as an office tower – is a single seamless volume teeming with movement and activity.

Skyscraper Bridge Unifies the Korean Peninsula

(image via: evolo)

Peaceful reunification of the two Koreas is the dream of many – but if and when it does happen, environmentalists hope that the 50-mile buffer zone between the two countries will remain as it is. Untouched for 50 years, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is one of the world’s most pristine ecological environments and contains half of the Korean Peninsula’s wildlife. With this in mind, Korean architects Kim Sehyeon, Lee Jung Boram and Choung Yongsu have proposed a skyscraper bridge packed with meeting halls and meditation areas where citizens of both countries could meet.

The UK’s Tallest Bridge by Stephen Spence

(images via: archdaily)

This innovative design, created for the River Wear in Sundlerland, could become the UK’s tallest bridge at over 519 feet. Two curved spires cross in the air, supported by cables, in a striking silhouette that will undoubtedly become a local landmark. The status of the project is unclear, but assuming that funds are available, construction is due to start in 2012 with an anticipated completion date in 2015.

World’s Tallest Bridge in Dubai

(image via: world architecture news)

It seems that Dubai has been on a quest to produce the biggest, most jaw-dropping architectural projects in the world, so it’s no surprise that they’re currently constructing the world’s longest and tallest arch bridge. The design, by NYC firm FXFowle, seems to flout the laws of physics. It may look like the kind of design that’s destined to remain a concept forever, but the Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Bridge is due for completion in 2012. It’ll have 12 passenger lanes, a dual rail track for Dubai’s Metro Green Line and a man-made island with an opera house, and will carry some 20,000 vehicles per hour.

Solar Wind Concept

(images via: discovery)

Large-scale wind power may necessitate putting turbines in unexpected places – including, perhaps, over rivers and valleys that are often wind corridors. So even if this particular design for a wind turbine bridge – which also has a grid of solar cells embedded on the surface of the road – isn’t entirely realistic, it’s an interesting concept. The designers say the bridge could power as many as 115,000 homes.

Living Bridge Towers Over the Seine River, Paris

(image via: evolo)

Part skyscraper, part bridge, this futuristic building is perched directly on the Seine River in Paris. Designer Nicola Marchi was inspired by the inhabited bridges of Europe’s past, saying “The building is integrated with the Seine, becoming a new landmark and offering the historic center the development of the most varied programmatic elements, including recreational, cultural, residential, and performing spaces. The new bridge for the city is a living one.”

Zaha Hadid’s Sheikh Zayed Bridge, Dubai

(images via: zaha hadid)

Asymmetrical steel arches form a wave-like design, emerging from cantilevered road decks on either side, in this design for Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Bridge by Zaha Hadid. The architect believes that the bridge, a part of a major four-line highway connecting Abu Dhabi island to the mainland, will become a destination in itself. It’s currently under construction.