More than a way to get from point A to point B, bridges represent some of mankind?s most dazzling technological innovations and form landmarks which instantly identify a place and time. Here are some of the most beautiful bridges from the past 2,000 years.

Rion-Antirio Bridge - Greece

photo credit: madmetal

The bridge crosses the merge point between the Corinth Gulf and the Patraikos Gulf, connecting ?mainland? Greece with its huge peninsula, the Peloponnese. Before now, only ferries tied to the two land masses together along this stretch of coast.

Due to the strong seismic activity in the area the Rion-Antirion Bridge needed to be able to withstand an earthquake of 7.4 on the Richter Scale. Engineers solved that issue by building a suspended deck that acts as a pendulum during an earthquake.

Gateshead Millennium Bridge - United Kingdom

photo credit: ny156uk

Designers entering the competition to build the world?s first and only tilting bridge were briefed to design a structure for pedestrians and cyclists that wouldn?t overshadow the six bridges already crossing the River Tyne. The winning entry did end up overshadowing the other bridges, but not because of its size. Instead, the unique tilting mechanism, built to allow ships to pass underneath, became a landmark on its own. The bridge is made up of a pair of steel arches: a pedestrian and cycling deck and a supporting deck that form an ark over the river. The tipping movement of the two curves that make up the bridge?s structure has been compared to the opening of an eyelid.

Millau Bridge - France

photo credit: PhillipC

At 984 feet tall, the Millau Viaduct over the Tarn River soars above the Eiffel Tower, which was also built by the French construction group Eiffage. It is the world?s tallest road bridge as well as the world?s longest cable-stayed bridge. The bridge, which opened in 2004, has a steel rather than a concrete roadbed. Drivers over the span have compared the experience to flying. At almost 1.5 miles long, the Millau Bridge is longer than the Champs Elysees.

Tower Bridge - United Kingdom

photo credit: robmcm

A bascule bridge in which the platform is raised and lowered to accommodate ships along the Thames, the Tower Bridge opened in 1894 to catcalls and derision. Critics panned its Neo Gothic architecture, designed to mimic the nearby Tower of London, as

? architectural gimcrack ?

? a monstrous and preposterous architectural sham ?

? a discredit to the generation that created it ?

But the critics eventually came around perhaps because of the sophisticated mechanism for lowering and raising the platform that lay underneath its gimcrack exterior. Originally powered by steam and now by electricity,the energy created by the bridge?s enormous pumping engines was then stored in six accumulators so power was instantly available as soon as the bascule needed to be raised. The accumulators fed the driving engines, which drove the bascules up and down. Despite the complexity of the system, the bascules only took about a minute to raise to their maximum 86 degrees.

Stari Most - Bosnia and Herzegovina

photo credit: JasonRogers

Stari Most, the ?Old Bridge? is now the new bridge crossing the river Neretva in Mostar. The 16th Century bridge was destroyed in 1993 by a Croatian shell. The shell not only destroyed the physical bridge, it also destroyed a structure that had symbolized Mostar since the bridge was built by the Ottoman emperor Suleiman the Great in 1566. Mostar means bridge keeper and Mostar?s bridge had enabled the town to become a vital crossroads of the Ottoman Empire.

The bridge reopened in 2004 after a 10-year reconstruction that used as many of the stones from the original bridge that could be salvaged from the river. The remaining stones were cut from the same quarry that was used in the original bridge. Flanked by the Halebija Tower on the right bank and the Tara Tower on the left, the bridge has a single hump-backed arch that rises 13 feet in the center.

Kintaikyo Bridge - Japan

photo credit: d?n’c

The Kintaikyo was built in 1673 by the feudal lord Kikkawa to be used by Samurai. Devasted by a typhoon in September 1950, it was rebuilt in 1953 without the use of a single nail, exactly as the original had been. The span stretches 210 meters long across five wooden arch bridges.

xSydney Harbour Bridge - Australia

photo credit: krossbow

Known locally as the coat hanger, the bridgeand adjacent Opera House in Sydney Harbor are Australia?s most feted landmarks. Australians had been talking about building a bridge in Sydney Harbor since the early 19th Century, but it took 20th Century advances in both engineering and the production of steel and reinforced concrete make the project feasible.

Golden Gate Bridge - United States

photo credit: cking

When the idea for building a span across the Golden Gate was first broached, many thought that it couldn?t be done. Experts said that the ferocious winds, blinding fogs and swirling tides at the location would prevent construction. And San Francisco?s chief engineer said the project would cost around $100 million, an unheard of figure at the time.

A 1916 newspaper article asked engineers to come up with a cheaper plan and Joseph Strauss took up the challenge. It took Strauss more than a decade of lawsuits and political infights to get permission to build the span, but the project broke ground in 1930 and opened seven years later.

Strauss, the public face of the bridge, wasn?t, however, the man responsible for its design?though he pretended to be. That honor belongs to Charles Ellis, a self-taught engineer who was never given credit for the design until his obituary. Irving Morrow designed the shape of the bridge towers, the lighting scheme, and the streetlights, railing, and walkways.

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

photo credit: mborowick

The last great public works project by Robert Moses, the Verrazano was the world?s longest suspension bridge from 1964 until 1981. Its 693-foot-high towers are farther apart at their tops than at their bases to compensate for the curvature of the earth. The bridge remains a vital link in New York City?s vast transportation network, carrying approximately 190,000 cars traveling a day along 12 lanes.

A bridge along the narrows had been the subject of great discussion since before all five boroughs united to form New York City in 1898. Until the bridge, Staten Island was only accessible by ferry, a method that worked fine when the weather was fine but not when the bay was choked with ice or when a fog closed in.

Brooklyn Bridge - United States

photo credit: ??I????O

The great bridge linking the then-separate cities of Brooklyn and New York opened in May 1883 after 13 years of construction costing $15 million and 20 lives. Designed by John Augustus Roebling and completed by his son Washington Roebling, the bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its completion. It was also the first suspension bridge to use steel for its cable wire and the first bridge to use explosives in a dangerous underwater device called a caisson. Work on the caissons permanently debilitated Washington Roebling, who was afflicted with the bends while working underwater.

Kintaikyo Bridge - Japan

photo credit: d?n’c

The Kintaikyo was built in 1673 by the feudal lord Kikkawa to be used by Samurai. Devasted by a typhoon in September 1950, it was rebuilt in 1953 without the use of a single nail, exactly as the original had been. The span stretches 210 meters long across five wooden arch bridges.

Mackinac Bridge - United States

photo credit: mandj98

After the 1883 opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, Michigan residents began lobbying for a bridge to span their state?s lower and upper peninsulas. Unfortunately, they wouldn?t get one until 1957. Until then, traffic between the two landmasses was strictly by ferry and thus came to a virtual standstill in the winter when the waters froze.

Michiganders claim their bridge is the longest in the Western hemisphere, a fact disputed by champions of the Golden Gate and fans of the Verazzano-Narrows bridge in New York. Length, it turns out, is subjective. The total length of the Mackinac Bridge is 26,372 feet. The length of the suspension bridge (including anchorages) is 8,614 feet. The length from cable bent pier to cable bent pier is 7,400 feet while the length of the main span between the towers is 3,800 feet. The Golden Gate stretches 4,200 feet between its towers.

Pont du Gard - France

photo credit: Wolfgang Staudt

Built around 19 AD to carry water from Uzes to Nimes, a 30-mile trek, this bridge over the Gard is 900 feet long and 160 feet high. On its first level it carries a road and at the top of the third level, a water conduit, which is 6 feet high and 4 feet wide.

The three levels were built in stone without mortar. Every stone block was cut to fit its place perfectly and some still bear the numbers assigned to them at construction. It is believed to have taken three to five years to build and around a thousand workers. It is the highest aqueduct bridge ever built by the Romans with three rows of arches: six on the bottom row, 11 on the second level and 47 on the top.

Bosphorus Bridge - Turkey

photo credit: WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong?

The only bridge in the world to connect two continents?Europe and Asia?the Bosporus Bridge was also the site of the only tennis match on two continents, an exhibition game between , Venus Williams and Turkish star Ipek Senoglu. The 4,954-foot-long bridge opened in 1973, but men have been trying to bridge the waters since 490 BC when a pontoon bridge was built so the Persian Emperor Darius the Great could move his army into Europe.

Conwy Suspension Bridge - United Kingdom

photo credit: inf0mike

One of the first road suspension bridges in the world, the bridge?s supporting towers were designed by builder Thomas Telford to match the turrets of the Conwy Castle, a 13th Century structure built by King Edward I. The bridge, in fact, is built into the rock on which Conwy Castle stands. The suspension bridge is small, only about 2 1/2 meters across, and is now open to pedestrians only. A wrought iron tubular railway bridge built by Robert Stephenson runs alongside the suspension bridge.

Oresund Bridge - Denmark and Sweden

photo credit: gripso_banana_prune

The longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe connects the two metropolitan areas of the Oresund Region: the Danish capital of Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo. More than a bridge, the 10-mile-long structure consists of a tunnel, a bridge and an artificial island. The artificial island of Peberholm was built to transfer traffic from the tunnel up onto the bridge. Peberholm is about four kilometers long and made up of dredged material from the surrounding seabed. The Oresund is the longest border crossing bridge in the world and the tunnel is the longest immersed tube tunnel for road and rail traffic in the world.

Ponte Vecchio - Italy

photo credit: freshwater2006

Built in the 14th Century, the Ponte Vecchio is the most famous of Florence?s six bridges spanning the Arno River. Lined with shops since its opening, Ferdinando I kicked out the original butchers, tanneries and greengrocers to make way for goldsmiths, reducing the odor emitting from the Ponte Vecchio and upgrading the neighborhood. The row of shops is interrupted in the center and the bridge opens over the Arno with two panoramic terraces.

In the 16th Century, Cosimo I de? Medici, Duke of Florence, commissioned a corridor to run over the bridge and connect the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti.

Rialto Bridge - Italy

photo credit: C.Alary - expose ? La Taverne de Cluny-Paris 5?

Built between 1588 and 1591, as a permanent replacement for the boat bridge and three wooden bridges that had spanned the Grand Canal at various times since the 12th Century, the Rialto was the only way to cross Venice?s Grand Canal on foot until the Accademia Bridge was built in 1854.

Khaju Bridge - Iran

photo credit: Hamed Saber

Built about 1650 by Shah Abbas I as a dam, the 435-feet-long bridge has two levels: The lower level regulates the flow of river by locks; a covered indoor area upstairs provides a space for people to drink tea and socialize.

Lupu Bridge - China

photo credit: harryalverson

The world?s longest arched bridge, at 550 meters high, is also the world?s first completely welded bridge structure. It opened in Shanghai in 2003.

photo credit: Donna Cazadd

Are you trying to sell or rent your home? If so, it is safe to say that you put a lot of time into upgrading the interior and keeping it clean. And while there is nothing wrong with this, you need to make sure that you also keep the exterior of your property in mind.

When it comes down to it, landscaping is important in a big way. When somebody pulls in front of your home what is the first thing that they are going to see? That is right, the landscaping. By giving off a good first impression, potential buyers and/or renters will want to continue to the inside.

Believe it or not, landscaping does not have to cost a lot of money. Money is the main reason that many people ignore the exterior of their home. They think that all extra money should be put on the inside. Of course, this is not true at all.

You can make minor yet important updates to your landscape with only a couple hundred dollars or less. After all, you can do most of the work yourself. In fact, it does not cost any money to cut the grass, trim the bushes, and tidy up here and there. As you move forward, you can spend a few dollars buying flowers and other shrubbery when needed. You may find that all you need to do is clean up your yard a bit in order to give it a fresh, clean look.

The way that you keep your home on the outside will determine what people think about the inside. If you are buying or renting your home, it is important that you stay up to date on your landscape. It is not expensive, especially if you are willing to do most of the work yourself.

Whether you?re looking at big, established cities or smaller towns, the places in the United States that are growing most rapidly are likely technology hubs close to universities, according to ?Forbes? magazine. The country?s fastest growing metro areas are also likely to be warm weather places in the west or the south. (more…)

photo credit: skistz

As a landlord there are many questions that you need to answer. One of the most important is whether or not you will handle your own repairs. The way that you answer this question depends on many factors. No matter what your answer, you need to make sure that you do the right thing. A wrong decision could have major ramifications. (more…)

As people get greener they’re more concerned about the footprint they’re leaving on the environment. This means that many of the eco-conscious (Hollywood and D.C. sorts excluded) are moving into smaller homes. Check out these tiny abodes to see what some of the smallest homes look like.

In Toronto, Canada this little beauty was built on what used to be a driveway. Boasting just under 300 square feet, this one bedroom, one bath home has everything you could ever want (except storage space). This small home even features an adorable backyard and at its last sale held a whopping sticker price of $179,900.

Great Britain’s smallest home is located on the Quay in Conwy, Wales. This home has an official record listed in the Guinness Book of Records. The residence was used as such from the sixteenth century until 1900 when it was deemed unfit for humans. The Quay house measures a mere 10×6 feet.

North America’s Jim Reid claims to have the smallest home in America and he believes it’s the solution to the homeless problem. Nicknamed Shelter One the 10×10 foot home was built by Reid himself for a mere $9,000.

The title of Smallest Home in the World goes to Jay Shafers Tumbleweed. Shafer is an artist and architect and not only designed and built his home but makes tiny houses for others. This one rests near San Francisco and is a tiny 96 square feet. Designed to reduce Shafer?s footprint on the world the portable home has been his primary residence since 1997.