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Author Name: BoingBoing
This story was originally published on Boingboing.net. [1]
License: CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0.[2]
Ottawa bridge attracts spiders that cast giant shadows
2021-08-28 00:00:00
In 2019, the city of Ottawa opened up the Flora Footbridge, an attractive new structure that spans the city's Rideau Canal. At night when it's lit up, it's quite beautiful, as you can see from this promotional photo from DTAH, the firm that designed it …
But as the science writer Rosemary Mosco noted on Twitter, there is a "wee problem" …
The lights draw in insects, so spiders have happily spun webs on every light. And the position of the lights means that the entire bridge casts ENORMOUS MOVING SPIDER SHADOWS along its entire length
She shot some pictures and video of the spider shadows, and yeeeiiiii …
tw//spiders
This is a truly glorious example of the way that we build without thinking of other creatures. While I was laughing at every dang spider, a local walked by and said "ah yep, the spiders. We've all gotten used to it". They just blithely cross Spider Bridge every day pic.twitter.com/zVYo6E7Ezf — Rosemary Mosco (Bird And Moon Comics) (@RosemaryMosco) August 14, 2021
I am now morbidly interested to see this. I visit Canada, my home and native land, pretty frequently; the next time I'm there I want to see Ottawa's new super creepy Spider Bridge.
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