German Engineering

I used to hear advertisements for Mercedes and BMW's, and they would highlight that they are made with "German Engineering". I never really thought about what that meant, but had heard it enough that it stuck in my head. Now my concept of "German Engineering" is fully understood. Germans (I know you can't generalize, but my guess is that this would characterize atleast 80% of the population) take their time, and are absolutely meticulous. Last year, one of the bridges that we frequently go over was completely redone. It took over a year to complete. The weekend that it finally opened for traffic was so funny, because people stood on it and just admired/marveled at the engineering of it. We are getting ready to witness a 2nd bridge being opened again after closing for over a year. A new pedestrian bridge was put in before the old one was demolished. The pedestrian bridge is being used during the construction of the new bridge - here is a link to the photos of just the temporary pedestrian bridge being built: http://www.stadt.bamberg.de/showobject.phtml?La=1&object=tx%7c332.7504.1 They were so clever, that they created scaffolding over the bridge, so nothing had to be done from the water (that way the river boats could still go through). It seems like such a peculiar thing that interests me, but I find it neat that people take the time to marvel at human engineering. Getting back to my earlier stament about the Mercedes and BMW (pronounced BMV in deutschland), I now know that the names of those automobiles coincide with quality "German Engineering" - they aren't just status symbols, but truly well designed cars (just like our soon to be new bridge) :-).