40 Examples Of Innovative Designs That Turned Infrastructure Into Art

Infrastructure often goes unnoticed in our daily lives. We drive over bridges, pass through tunnels, ride trains, and walk across beautifully designed streets without giving much thought to the incredible engineering and creativity behind them. But every so often, a photo captures just how impressive these human-made structures really are.

A subreddit that is a treasure trove of jaw-dropping images highlights the beauty of design and the brilliance of human problem-solving. From futuristic transit systems to gravity-defying bridges, here are some incredible pieces of infrastructure that showcase humanity’s brilliance.

#1 Boston – Big Dig Before vs. After

#2 Layers

#3 Wave Pedestrian Bridge – Kyiv, Ukraine

#4 At Nearly 24 Miles Long, The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway In Louisiana Stands As The Longest Continuous Bridge Over Water In The World

#5 Holland, Michigan’s Downtown Has Heated Streets And Sidewalks That Melt Snow And Ice

The system utilizes wastewater from a nearby power plant which circulates through 120 miles of plastic piping underneath the pavement. It can melt an inch of snow in an hour even at 20 degrees Fahrenheit… No salt!

#6 Highway Turned Into A Canal In Utrecht, Netherlands

#7 Animal Crossing In Bydgoszcz, Poland

#8 Sart Canal Bridge, Belgium… So Surreal, So Serene

#9 Chiba Suspended Monorail, Tokyo Metropolitan Area

#10 The Monorail In Chiba, In Tokyo’s Suburbs

#11 Bus Lanes In Essen, Germany

#12 The Longest Highspeed Rail Line In The World Crossing A Desert. Lanzhou- Xinjiang Railway

#13 Amsterdam Netherlands In 1971 vs. 2020

#14 Saale-Elster-Talbrücke, Germany’s Longest Railway Bridge And Also Europe’s Longest Highspeed-Rail Bridge

#15 The Age Of Walls Overlooking The Age Of Bridges, Highspeed Train, Beijing, China

#16 Map Of La Plata, Argentina. One Of The Best Planned Cities In The World

#17 Mass Timber Parking In Wendlingen, Germany

#18 The Monorail In Wuppertal, Germany

#19 Bridge In The Netherlands

#20 The Bike Lane In Downtown Seattle

#21 Infrastructure That Never Was : The City Of Cincinnati Started To Build A Rapid Transit System In The 1920s But Only Completed Seven Miles Of Subway Lines Before The Project Was Abandoned

#22 Wuhu Yangtze River Bridge, China

#23 Turning Off Niagara Falls For The First Time In 12,000 Years 1969

#24 This Is What A Highspeed Rail Line Cutting Through A Plateau Looks Like, Ningxia Province, China

#25 Dutch Roundabout With Center Bus Lane

#26 Nouvelle Route Du Littoral, Most Expensive Road Of The World In Réunion Island, France

#27 London Sanitation Engineers Overseeing New Sewer Construction Following The Great Stink Of 1858

#28 Favourite Airport Layout/Design? Midway Airport, Chicago

#29 The Marenostrum Supercomputer

#30 Shonan Monorail, Near Tokyo, Japan

#31 Nanjing South Railway Station

#32 Herzegovina Bridge, Bosnia And Herzegovina

#33 Five Way Streetcar Junction Being Built In Toronto, 1923

#34 The New Gordie Howe Bridge Progresses Across The Detroit River

#35 Tokyo Monrail

#36 Anji Khad Bridge- India’s First Cable-Stayed Railway Bridge

#37 Takaosan Highway Interchange, Tokyo

#38 Łódź, Poland

#39 Retro-Future Infrastructure: A 1913 Vision Of A Five-Storied, Six Level Super Street In New York, With The Claim That It Would ‘Increase The Efficiency Of Business Traffic By 25 Percent

#40 Earthquake In Japan Raises The Manhole Above Ground

Saumya Ratan

Saumya is an explorer of all things beautiful, quirky, and heartwarming. With her knack for art, design, photography, fun trivia, and internet humor, she takes you on a journey through the lighter side of pop culture.