Isambard Brunel (1837–1902)

Isambard Kingdom Brunel began his working life assisting his father, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, in building the first tunnel under the River Thames, the Thames Tunnel (now known as the Rotherhithe Tunnel). Injured during the project when the tunnel was flooded, he spent his convalescence designing a mehr anzeigen suspension bridge for the Avon Gorge. Known as the Clifton Suspension Bridge, it is still in use today. Brunel also built docks at Monkwearmouth, Bristol, Brentford, Milford Haven, and Plymouth, and bridges at Maidenhead, Chepstow, and Saltash. He was the first to use compressed air caissons to sink pier foundations. Brunel also built three ships, each one the largest in the world at the time of its launching. The Great Western, built in 1837, was a wooden paddle steamship and became the first regular transatlantic liner. The iron-hulled Great Britain was the first large vessel driven by a screw propeller. (Today, it is a museum in the dry dock in which it was built.) The Great Eastern, which remained the largest passenger ship for 40 years, has gone down in history as the ship that laid the first successful transatlantic cable. In addition to his work with ships, tunnels, and bridges, Brunel improved the design of large guns, built a floating armored barge for the Crimean War in 1854, and designed a prefabricated hospital for the Crimean War in 1855. Despite his many and varied achievements, Brunel is best remembered for his work as a pioneer railway engineer. More than any other person, he was responsible for construction of the Great Western Railway, which served the southwest of England. He used a broad 7-foot gauge for the tracks to give greater stability and allow higher speeds. He built tunnels, viaducts, and bridges to carry the railway bed. And he established high standards of service and reliability. To this day, the Great Western Railway, although absorbed into the British national railway system, symbolizes the best in railways. Brunel died in 1859. (Bowker Author Biography) weniger anzeigen