Reviews seven really significant achievements in engineering over the 150 years since 1800. I read 4 chapters, Great Eastern seems to have been an advance too far, they really couldn't handle its size and was double skinning hull so significant, no one copied it as far as I know? By contrast the Bell Rock Lighthouse was a superb achievement of engineering, masonry, design, and sheer physical strength. The London sewers includes the best description of John Snow's work I have read, although its really only tangentially related to the sewers, since he was concerned with water supply. The Panama seems to have been another leap too far, was it really worth 20000 dead? But again the medical aspect was fascinating and significant. Was the canal big enough when eventually done?
There are good photographs but not many explanatory diagrams, I would have valued more explanation of the actual engineering involved, although the medicine was quite well covered. ( )