This talk presents a review of the history of dynamic testing and modal analysis over the last 40 years from the late sixties until now. In the early days focus of analysis was on simple frequency domain methods, however, relatively quickly some time domain techniques became available  and finally, advanced time domain techniques like ARMA models and Stochastic Subspace Techniques entered the scene. Also, improved frequency domain techniques like the Frequency Domain Decomposition technique and the Polymax technique have become popular, and now we can say that today, a good deal of capable techniques are available for civil engineering modal analysis. The testing of civil structures defers from the traditional modal testing in the sense, that very often it is difficult, or sometimes impossible, to artificially excite a large civil engineering structure. Also, many times, even though an artificial load might be used to excite the structure, natural loads might occur together with the controlled loading. An overview of known testing techniques is presented and the problems involved are discussed.