Bamboo, although associated in the North American mind with the tropics, is a grass native to every continent except Europe, and has been used as a building material dating back to 3500 BC (DeBoer, 2002). The Chinese, Indians and Incas took advantage of its great tensile strength to develop the first suspension bridges. It was used to build boats; and in building construction it became a common material in the vernacular architecture of China, Southeast Asia and Central and South America. Bamboo is a very versatile material, used for food, furniture, musical instruments, cloth, paper-making and even rayon (Adams, 1998). Besides boats, bridges and buildings, it has been used in airplanes, kites and zeppelins; and Thomas Edison even used carbonized bamboo for the first successful light filaments. In building construction, it has served as framing, roofing, flooring, wall matting, ceilings, scaffolding, boards and panels, plywood, concrete reinforcement, connecting stakes, and more. Bamboo is abundant, renewable and fast-growing. Some estimate that over 35 million acres (14 million hectares) of the Earths surface are covered with one or more of the 1200 to 1400 species of the plant (Chiras, 2000). 64 percent are native to Southeast Asia, 33 percent grows in Latin America, and the rest are in Africa and Oceania. In North America there are only three native species of bamboo, compared to the 440 species native to Latin America. But bamboo thrives in the US southeast, and some hardy species can even grow in New England and Canada (Barnhart, 1989). Bamboo in buildings can help reduce the amount of wood, steel and concrete needed. As a substitute for wood, it can take great pressure off forests, and contribute to