Assembly of a tripodal ligand tris(2-benzimidazoylmethyl)amine with the long rod-like spacer N(1),N(4)-bis(pyridin-4-ylmethylene)-benzene-1,4-diamine in the presence of M(ClO(4))(2) (M = Cd(2+) and Mn(2+)) or H(3)O x ClO(4) leads to formation of 6(3)-hcb layers which interweave in a parallel fashion to give the first examples of hydrogen-bonding Borromean links.