Engineering Riddle – No. 4 (Materials) “A Point of No Returning”

Your welcome to disfigure, transform or twist with vigor,
But let me be your warning, to save you dreadful mourning.
When released from deformation, whether tension or compression,
From my left get restoration, from my right, life-long mutation.
I’m a bridge best not for burning, a point of no returning,
Where rifts occur much faster, and cycling meets disaster.
 
What material property am I?