The 3D mapping service Google Earth grants users a bird's-eye view of craggy mountaintops, sprawling suburbs, and crowded cityscapes. Users can even travel underwater for a look at the seafloor.
Google Earth explorers who view these satellite images sometimes come across astonishing, otherworldly sights. Artist and programmer Clement Valla, for example, has collected dozens of images of warped bridges spotted from California to the Catskills. Geekosystem explains that the pictures "[consist] of bridges zoomed in upon in Google Earth just so, revealing surreal, bendy, glitch-infused landscapes."
Valla's unusual collection puts an alien twist on familiar sights. "I travel through Google Earth looking for strange mappings of the 2 dimensional onto the 3 dimensional that provide fabulous and unintentional distortions. These images are like funhouse mirrors - strange illusions and reflections of the real," Valla said in a statement.
Valla himself acknowledged the impermanence of these surreal finds. "[A]s Google Earth improves its 3d models, its terrain, and its satellite imagery, these strange, surrealist depictions will probably be replaced with better representations," the artist said.
Take a look through the slideshow (below) to view these strange, beautiful photos of bridges seen via Google Earth. The entire collection can be viewed at Clement Valla's website. For more strange sights, check out our roundup of the most mysterious images from Google Earth.