The German bridge inventory is characterised by the use of prestressed concrete, which clearly demonstrates the importance of this construction method for today's infrastructure. The development of pre stressed concrete is undoubtedly a success story. Nevertheless, it is known that errors and problems occurred during its development. However, these issueshave not yet been adequately addressed, and it is suspected that there are more problems. One indication of this is the large number of tensioning methods that have been used since the Second World War and are no longer used in new structures. The reasons for abandoning certain tensioning methods are not fully understood. Nevertheless, post tensioning methods can provide valuable insight into the handling and far-reaching developments in prestressed concrete bridge construction. This is because there are dependencies between the development of post-tensioning systems, construction methods and bridge typologies which in turn also depend on any damage or problems that have occurred. His article illustrates these dependencies using two selected prestressing methods, thereby justifying the focus on prestressing methods as the central object of investigation for further considerations in construction technology.