In the 18th century, long-distance wheeled transport was provided by stage wagons. These big, clumsy vehicles hauled goods from town to town, and were very heavy. Their wheels cut deep ruts in the roads and there were frequent complaints from other road-users. France was one of the first countries to try and improve their roads, and by 1750 Britain and America had a well-connected network of new, more level roads. Coach services were started and organized, where at the end of each stage of a few miles teams of fresh horses waited to replace the tired set, and by the 19th century, the era of the horse-drawn carriage was ushered in.

Several attempts to launch steam as a power source (in 1796 and 1815) failed and the society was resistant to change. Some road authorities considered steam coaches a public nuisance and charged them toll-fees up to ten times greater than those for horse-drawn carriages. It was not until the dawn of the 20th century when steam took over as a plausible source of energy for transportation.

The first petrol-driven motor cars were made possible by the invention of the internal-combustion engine in 1863. 100 years later there are more than 95 million cars in the world. The internal-combustion engine, powered by coal-gas and air, was more compact and powerful than the steam engines that had been used previously. The first motor cars were produced during the 1880s by a German engineer, Karl Benz. Before the invention of the motor engine, some cars ran on steam, and such machines were restricted to a maximum speed of only 22.5km/h (14mph)! Seen here is the US-built Touring Stanley (1904) and the 'horseless carriage'.

In 1913, Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line, in which workers add parts to the cars as they pass. . Many parts of modern mass-production cars are assembled by robots. The exact specifications of new models are fed into computers to enable engineers to accurately program the assembly-line robots

In the 1930s, cars, such as the Delahaye type-135, were hand-made by skilled craftsmen and cost more than 1,000 pounds, a huge sum of money. Cheaper, mass-produced cars were first made in the US by Henry Ford. German Volkswagen Beetles, designed in the 1930s and first built in 1945, were marketed as 'people's cars'. They paved the way for the small cars of today.

In the 1980s, Japan overtook Britain, Germany and the US in car production. Japan's success was partly due to efficient working methods in its factories and its investment in robotic welders, assembler and painters. As fuel had become more expensive after the 1970s, the Japanese sold millions of small cars that had the advantage of being cheaper to run.

Modern motorways, with their complex 'spaghetti' junctions, have their origins in the wide, two-lane autobahns built in Germany in the 1930s. The US completed its first road that stretched right across the continent, the Lincoln Highway, in 1930. As car ownership grew in the US in the 1950s, a network of interstate motorways, called freeways, were built across the country.

During the 1950s large, sleek American cars with tail fins, chrome and bright colors become popular. They were a sign of American wealth, although they used a great deal of petrol (or gasoline). But fuel was inexpensive in the 1950s, but that is hardly the case now.

The first bridges were made of pieces of wood laid across streams. As road travel and railways increased, , bridge building improved. The longest bridges are suspension bridges, held in place by cables supported by towers at each end. Tower, in London, is a famous example of a bascule bridge, one in which the bridge tilts upwards to let ships pass and allows cars to drive across when the bridge is down.

Long bridges, such as San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge (opened in 1937) which has a span of 1,280 meters (4,200 feet), are built in stages. The weight of each section is supported by intermediate piers crowned with towers, from which the parallel cables are suspended.

Computerization of car designing has done wonders for the motorcar industry, where changes and improvements to the shape and components of the car can be made with the click of a mouse. The car shape is made built up with a series of curves, then the wire frame is filled in. The final result is very realistic.

Cars in the future may be made from lightweight materials such as aluminum and carbon-fiber, which would make them more economical on fuel. Electric cars like the Citroen Citela, which run off rechargeable batteries, are another alternative (although power stations would still be used to generate electricity). The hybrid car is an answer to the electric car's battery problems. It has two engines: one runs on petrol and the other is electric. The clean and quiet electric motor is used for short journeys and lower speeds. The petrol engine is used for long-distance travel and higher speeds. Solar-powered cars, such as the Japanese Rara II, have also been road-tested, but they need plenty of sunlight in order to work.

The most likely alternative fuel is hydrogen. It is already used as a rocket fuel, and is one of the most common elements on the Earth. When it is burned it combines with oxygen to form water, a harmless by-product, as opposed to the other harmful exhaust gases produced in the combustion of petrol. The Mazda HR-X runs on hydrogen fuel, and the hydrogen tank is stored under the floor of the car.

Time magazine reports that the latest technology is the Cadillac Evoq, with snazzy new features like the first commercial night-driver system, based on infrared waves, highlighting obstacles at greater distances than the naked eye could see, without the driver having to move his eyes from the road. It also has ultrasonic rear-parking assist, so that you can anticipate what you can't see, as well as performance algorithm shifting (an automatic heads-up display for shifting gears).