Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a prolific and visionary engineer.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a prolific and visionary engineer.
The buildings, bridges, tunnels and steamships he left behind are a testament to his ingenuity and to the spirit of sheer determination felt by all the great engineers of the 19th century.
By the end of the Industrial Revolution, the proportion of the British population living in cities had increased from 20 to 80 per cent.
One such project was the Thames Tunnel – under the river between Rotherhithe and Wapping in London – which Brunel began working on in 1823. The chief engineer was his father, French-born Marc Brunel (1769–1849).
Many workers died due to the frequent collapses and flooding and the project was halted for long periods.
However, it did open in 1843, the first ever tunnel beneath a riverbed.
In 1831, Brunel (1806–1859) became chief engineer at Bristol Docks. Over the next two years he designed several other docks, but in 1833 he moved to the project for which he is best remembered: the Great Western Railway.
Britain’s railways were still very new and the Bristol to London line would be a vital link.
Brunel was chief engineer, designing the innovative bridges, viaducts, terminals and tunnels that characterised the line and made it one of the wonders of 19th century Britain.
Brunel also excelled in marine engineering, important in a country strengthening its trade links with far-flung parts.
In the 1830s, a return voyage to New York took two months by sailing ship.
Brunel was determined to cut that, so he designed the Great Western, the world’s largest steamship at that time.
This wooden-hulled paddle steamer, launched in 1837, cut the round trip to 29 days.
Spurred on by its success, Brunel designed another steamship, the SS Great Britain. Launched in 1843, it was the first steamship with a metal hull and a ‘screw’ propeller.
But the biggest and most ambitious of Brunel’s ships was the Great Eastern, designed to carry passengers non-stop to India and Australia.
It had sails, huge paddle wheels and a propeller.
Work began in 1852 but soon ran over budget and was hampered by seemingly insurmountable technical challenges.
The Great Eastern was finally finished in 1858 and made its maiden voyage to New York in 1860, a year after Brunel’s death.
It was not the commercial success he and his backers had hoped for, but it did later find an important use, laying the first successful transatlantic telegraph cables in 1866.
Five years on from his death, another of Brunel’s masterpieces was completed, Bristol’s Clifton Suspension Bridge – a spectacular monument to a great man.
