Every year, an estimated 41 million squirrels become roadkill, as they scurry between busy streets to find food sources. This would not stand for Amos Peters, a Longview, Washington architect who rose to local fame for his 1963 creation: the Nutty Narrows Squirrel Pedestrian Bridge.
Peters and his colleagues at the Park Plaza office building, along Longview’s Olympia Way, often witnessed area squirrels being run over by cars. One day, he found a dead squirrel with a nut in his mouth, and a group of his colleagues decided it was finally time to intervene.
Together, they came up with the idea of the squirrel bridge, forming a committee to ask the City Council’s blessing. The first Nutty Narrows bridge was 60 feet in length and made from aluminium and fire hose, costing just $1,000.
Soon, the bridge became a tourist attraction, and the city began receiving reports of the mammals successfully crossing the road, even escorting their young and teaching them the ropes.
After receiving worldwide newspaper coverage, Peters even began receiving fan mail, a blog post from the city of Longview reported.
“One man wrote, ‘Little men take time to cater to big people who might do them good. Only big men pause to aid little creatures,’” the blog post said.
This inspiration continued, with a total of nine squirrel bridges now in operation in Longview. The original Nutty Narrows bridge still resides on Olympia Way, though it was taken down and repaired in 1983 after 20 years of use.
According to Longview, Chip and Dale and Mickey Mouse visited all the way from Disneyland, along with 300 children, to re-dedicate the bridge. Just four years later, Peters died, and a 10-foot wooden squirrel sculpture was added to the original bridge in honor of his dedication to the project.
The nine other bridges are now scattered throughout Longview, and as of July 2026, the squirrel bridge project has expanded to the neighboring city of Duvall, where locals now have a bridge of their own.
The latest bridge was spearheaded by Duvall resident Nikita Kozhekin, who lives next to the crossing and watched countless squirrels run for their lives across the road.
“It’s a major hazard for all wild animals, the road crossings,” Kozhekin told KING 5 News. He added that the bridge isn’t just good for wildlife — it helps drivers too, since people often swerve when they spot a squirrel in the road.
What inspired Kozhekin to act was a story similar to that of Peters. The young Duvall man saw a Douglas squirrel struck and killed by a driver on his street, still holding a hazelnut in her mouth that she had taken from Kozhekin’s yard.
“All she wanted was to carry the hazelnut across the street and hide it somewhere. Is that really too much to ask?” Kozhekin wrote on his website, sharing that he tearfully buried the squirrel in a flower pot in his yard.
“Douglas squirrels are small squirrels native and endemic to the Pacific Northwest coastal areas,” he wrote. “In fact, they are not found anywhere else in the world. They need protection — as do all squirrels and all animals.”
Kozhekin then spoke with members of the local city council, the mayor, and the director of public works to figure out how to get the bridge installed. It would require a right-of-way permit and approval from neighboring property owners, along with a licensed contractor and arborist approved by the city.
He contacted approximately 80 engineers and finally found success with Andrey Pilat. After a few more rounds of administrative and engineering reviews, he was victorious, and the Douglas B. Squirrel Memorial Bridge, dedicated to his fallen bushy-tailed friend, was a reality.
“We did a bunch of research and we came up with this idea that this rope will hold that weight,” the contractor, Pilat, told KING 5 News. “The bridge itself is 80 feet long and about 16 feet off the ground.”
Less ornate than the original Nutty Narrows bridge, this one is a simple rope connected by two trees. After a bit of early skepticism, it seems to be working.
After a week, the squirrels discovered the bridge and now cross frequently, Kozhekin said.
He even set up a trail camera to capture footage of the squirrels on the bridge, sharing it on social media.
Duvall’s new squirrel bridge joins the many in Longview, along with several others that have popped up in Europe over the years.
It’s a simple solution developed over 60 years ago — one squirrel enthusiasts of all stripes can get behind.
“Imagine a world where every tree on every street is connected by bridges, where millions of crossings span the sky, and habitats are safe and connected,” Kozhekin wrote on his website. “How wonderful would that be?”
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Featured Image: SounderBruce/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
