In France, the peculiar type of civic modernization often referred to as “progress” by politicians is frequently met with anything from skepticism to outright hostility, and the construction of a huge new bridge over the Tarn River is the latest battleground. “The project is paradoxical. Nobody can dispute that it is going to be one of the most beautiful bridges in the world… But the bridge will do much more than lop two hours off the journey from Paris to the southwest coast. It is proof that in one of the most centralized countries in Europe, a bureaucrat in Paris can draw a line on a map and, at a stroke, bypass any local objections.”