Photo: Sourav Paul | Unsplash
The Inca Empire built elaborate rope bridges to cross vast chasms in the Andes. Today, only one of those bridges remains: the Q’eswachaka. Every single year since the Inca Empire, Victoriano Arizapana’s family has led the local community in cutting the bridge down and reweaving it from scratch. The bridge is strong enough to hold the weight of more than one hundred men. But it isn’t made of iron or steel. It’s made of grasses and fibers. It hangs 60 feet above a thundering river. And Arizapana is not a construction worker or a structural engineer—but he is the only person on earth who knows how to build this particular bridge. Arizapana is the heir to a tradition that is over 500 years old.
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