12. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, Boston, Mass.

This white cable-stayed bridge, in which cables are attached to bridge towers which alone bear the weight of the structure (in suspension bridges cables ride freely across the towers), was part of Boston’s notoriously over-budget Big Dig project and opened in 2003, bringing eight lanes of Interstate 93 across the Charles River. Christian Menn, the Swiss designer of the bridge, conceived the inverted 270-foot Y-shaped towers as an allusion to the Bunker Hill Monument in neighboring Charlestown, and it’s largely successful. Far from being an intrusion on Charlestown and Boston’s North End, the bridge breathes fresh air into a storied cityscape, and is already a Boston icon.

For more information: The Charles River Bridges