Microbes have evolved to thrive in virtually any terrestrial and marine environments, exposing them toa variety of mechanical cues including the ones generated by contact with surfaces and fluid flow.Bacteria have cellular components allowing them to progress with - or against - these forces. Deployingthese systems when sensing relevant physical cues optimizes their function, ultimately improvingbacterial fitness. Owing to newly developed biophysical techniques, we are now starting to appreciatethe breadth of bacterial phenotypes influenced by mechanical inputs: adhesion, motility, biofilmformation and even pathogenicity. In this presentation, I will try survey the various physical forcesbacteria experience in their natural environments and describe the structures that transmit theseforces to a cell. We then discuss how forces can be transduced by dedicated cellular machinery toregulate diverse phenotypes including virulence and motility. Finally, I will provide a perspective onhow mechanics influence the biogenesis of multicellular structures known as biofilms.