Aesthetics and Bridge Design

Bridge design is one area of civil engineering where the art and the skills of the designer are completely exposed in the finished product. Designing bridges is simultaneously an engineering and an architectural task. In fact a bridge can be an architectonic work in itself. The bridge structure must represent the flow of forces it is called upon to master, and transfer them gracefully to the ground. Function must dictate the design of the bridge, taking full advantage of construction techniques to obtain good-looking shapes.