In 2007, the need for an additional crossing over the Bow River presented Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with both an opportunity and a dilemma. Existing routes into the city for the more than 13,000 daily commuters—both pedestrians and cyclists—used three bridges. With an expected doubling of the city’s population in the next 20 years, the need for another bridge seemed an appropriate solution to ease congestion for the anticipated traffic. However, the problem with building a new footbridge lay with city restrictions that only allowed for a 23-foot vertical building envelope, thanks to a helicopter flight zone above the proposed site, the flood level of the river, and ecological concerns that prohibited mid-span supports in the water. The opportunity, then, lay in finding an architect to design a structure given these parameters, and the city chose Santiago Calatrava for the task.