Miraculously unscathed by the industrialization that the Belgian province of Limburg underwent after coal was discovered there early in the 20th century, Hoge Kempen is an extensive land of forests and heaths that in 2006 became the country’s first – and so far only – national park, now a model not only of environmental conservation but also of tourism management, given how it has been able to create jobs and yield profits without detriment to biodiversity.

As part of a network of cycling lanes stretching through the entire park, a new bridge not only hovers over a road but is a landscape-enjoyment experience in itself. Evoking mining facilities that have become obsolete in the area, a structure of wooden trestles holds up a board flanked at its ends by high surfaces, which invite bikers to pedal all the way to the central part, where the path becomes flat and the railing is reduced to the minimum, offering splendid views amid the foliage...[+]