31 Haunting Places That Prove Nature Is An Unstoppable Force

Mother Nature is a powerful force, strong enough to undo all the “progress” that makes us feel invincible. It won’t be quick, but it will be beautiful. Here’s proof.

La Petite Ceinture Railway, Paris

Photographer Pierre Folks spent three years documenting the slow decay of this once popular stretch of Parisian railway, abandoned since 1934.

North Brother Island, NYC

Home to a hospital, housing for WWII veterans, and a rehab center for teens at different times throughout its history, North Brother Island once looked like a well-manicured college campus. Abandoned for the past 50 years, it's slowly returning to the wild.

Chernobyl Power Plant

After the nuclear disaster in 1986, Chernobyl was abandoned for obvious reasons. The lack of human activity gave the surrounding forest an opportunity to reclaim its rightful place. In these aerial images taken in the 1990s (top) and 2013 (bottom) you can see how trees have moved into engulf the former city.

A string of decaying shipwrecks near the Bermuda Triangle

Ferris Wheel

This barn has become more tree than building.

Playground

Abandoned Train Tracks, Berlin

The trains moved out, and this tree moved right in.

Bobsled track from the 1984 Winter Olympics track in Sarajevo

Ghost Train

'Tent of Tomorrow' from the '64 World's Fair pavilion in Flushing Meadows, NY

Abandoned roller coaster in Hubei Province, China

This old building is no match for a determined tree.

Old ​log ride at Dogpatch, Northwest Arkansas

Bridge to Nowhere

Motorcycle

MotorcycleLegend has it that this bike was found in Sri Lanka, after a 3 decade long war. Apparently, it was a terrorist's motor bike, found like this by government forces after they had been evicted.

​Częstochowa’s Abandoned Train Depot in Poland

Atlanta School Bathroom

Valley of the Mills, Italy

Irish castle near the village of Kilgarvan

Church

Buried cars swallowed by grass in Taiwain

Plaza Hotel, Germany

Abandoned in the 1990s, this once bustling hotel has succumbed to creeping moss and plucky seedlings.

​Angkor Wat Temple, Cambodia

Wonderland amusement park on the outskirts of Beijing

This park was built, but never opened.

Water park, Japan

El Hotel del Salto, Colombia

Feral House

Remnants of a roller coaster at ​Nara Dreamland, Japan

Trees roam the streets in the abandoned city of Keelung, Taiwan

Houses in Detroit

It's no secret that the Motor City has fallen on hard times. These crazy time lapse images show nature's slow reclamation of an abandoned city block.