If You Love Animals, Here's One Hopeful Look At The Future

<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/18499719601/">Flickr/Washington State Dept of Transportation</a><span></span><br></p>
<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/18499719601/">Flickr/Washington State Dept of Transportation</a><span></span><br></p>

Animals and humans can live together a little more harmoniously, thanks to a brilliant design for a bridge that helps nature rise above traffic.

The first of its kind in the state of Washington, the new bridge will help innocent animals cross the busy interstate, which brings about 28,000 vehicles through their land each day.

The wildlife bridge is a "monumental step forward for wildlife on the move in our region," Jen Watkins, coordinator for the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition, told Discovery.

Flickr/Washington State Dept of Transportation

Watkins described the real dangers the busy interstate, without a bridge, causes for animals. "If we prevent them from moving, we're blocking their ability to find food, we're blocking their ability to find places to live when conditions change, like the large wildfires we saw last year, and we're blocking their ability to find new mates and have some genetic diversity in the population."

Bridges that lend a life-saving hand to wildlife are already a staple in Europe, but these sweet structures are, unfortunately, few and far between in the U.S.

Reddit/SenseiCAY

The bridge is good news for everyone.

YouTube/Conservation Northwest

We hope this new way of avoiding run-ins between humans and wildlife is the way of the future.

YouTube/Conservation Northwest

This is what the bridge over the I-90 highway will look like once complete.

Flickr/Washington State Dept of Transportation

Watch some of the kinds of animals of the Pacific Northwest whose lives could be saved by the bridge.

click to play video