Familiar elements in our landscape, these engineering structures, beyond their essential function related to economic development, often carry with them images and symbols. A structure may be land-based, naval, fluvial or even underground. Such works are qualified as "art" because their design and creation require knowledge where experience plays a role as important as the theory.
It allows, for example, for a road or a railway to clear an obstacle as is the case for the bridges over the Seine - L’Ile-Saint-Denis or the Crimée Lift Bridge on Canal de L’Ourcq. A structure can also provide reinforcement or be used to alter the course of elements such as bridges and locks - Saint Denis Canal and Ourcq Canal. But it may also be of no use at all…, like the unfinished bridge in Tremblay en France, built in the middle of nowhere and where the filmmaker Jean Luc Godard filmed during the shooting of Pierrot le Fou.
The variety of engineering structures is such that it offers a remarkable diversity in shapes and structures.
