Carriage of goods, in law, the transportation of goods by land, sea, or air. The relevant law governs the rights, responsibilities, liabilities, and immunities of the carrier and of the persons employing the services of the carrier. Historical Development Until the development of railroads, the most prominent mode of transport was by water. Overland transportation of goods…

Air law, the body of law directly or indirectly concerned with civil aviation. Aviation in this context extends to both heavier-than-air and lighter-than-air aircraft. Air-cushion vehicles are not regarded as aircraft by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), but the practice of individual states in this regard is not yet settled. The earliest legislation in air law was a…

Tunnels and underground excavations, horizontal underground passageway produced by excavation or occasionally by nature’s action in dissolving a soluble rock, such as limestone. A vertical opening is usually called a shaft. Tunnels have many uses: for mining ores, for transportation—including road vehicles, trains, subways, and canals—and for conducting water and sewage. Underground chambers, often associated with a complex of connecting tunnels and…

Lighthouse, structure, usually with a tower, built onshore or on the seabed to serve as an aid to maritime coastal navigation, warning mariners of hazards, establishing their position, and guiding them to their destinations. From the sea a lighthouse may be identified by the distinctive shape or colour of its structure, by the colour or flash pattern of its light, or by the…

Harbours and sea works, harbour also spelled harbor, any part of a body of water and the manmade structures surrounding it that sufficiently shelters a vessel from wind, waves, and currents, enabling safe anchorage or the discharge and loading of cargo and passengers. Lorient The construction of harbours and sea works offers some of the most unusual problems and…

Canals and inland waterways, natural or artificial waterways used for navigation, crop irrigation, water supply, or drainage. Despite modern technological advances in air and ground transportation, inland waterways continue to fill a vital role and, in many areas, to grow substantially. This article traces the history of canal building from the earliest times to the present day and describes both…

Bridge, structure that spans horizontally between supports, whose function is to carry vertical loads. The prototypical bridge is quite simple—two supports holding up a beam—yet the engineering problems that must be overcome even in this simple form are inherent in every bridge: the supports must be strong enough to hold the structure up, and the span between supports must…

The Romans had realized that a coordinated system of roadways connecting the major areas of their empire would be of prime significance for both commercial and military purposes. In the modern era, the nations of Europe first introduced the concept of highway systems. In France, for example, the State Department of Roads and Bridges was organized…

The parkway The achievement of such a system in the automobile age required a new form of road. This grew from the parkway, which had many historical precedents but was introduced in its modern form in 1858 with the work of the landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux for Central Park in New York City. The concept was given…

From corvée to toll Through the millennia, responsibility for financing and building roads and highways has been both a local and a national responsibility in the nations of the world. It is notable that this responsibility has changed along with political attitudes toward road building and has not rested easily with any party. Many roads…