LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Bridges
built 627 days ago
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a dynamic bit of a man with a high beaver hat full of memorandums scribbled to himself, and a leather pocket case holding fifty Trincomalee cigars. The jut of a cigar from his olive-complexioned face was a famous sight of the time. He was the most celebrated civil engineer of the middle nineteenth century. . . . The Little Giant built railroads, bridges, dry docks and steamships amidst salvos of controversy. He was possessed with grandeur. Everything he did was outsize, brilliant and radical.
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In 2006, the Royal Mint struck a £2 coin to "celebrate the 200th anniversary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his achievements."[36] The coin depicts a section of the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, along with a portrait of Brunel. The Post Office issued a set of commemorative stamps.
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The original 150-year-old Brunel sketches feature in his large Sketchbook No.8, and show two possible designs for the bridge. The first bears a striking resemblance, although on a much smaller scale, to his famous ‘Royal Albert Bridge’ over the River Tamar on the border between Cornwall and Devon (constructed 1852-1859). The second option shown is a wrought iron girder bridge to a design, which was subsequently built. The sketches are dated November 18th 1854 and the bridge was subsequently built between 1856 and 1857. Brunel’s original Sketchbook No.8 has been kindly loaned for the occasion by the University of Bristol Special Collections.
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In 1829 Brunel designed the magnificent suspension bridge which crosses the River Avon in Clifton, Bristol. Although his original design was rejected on the advice of Thomas Telford (1757-1834), an improved version, which was to have had sphinxes on the pylons and hieroglyphic decoration of Egyptian inspiration, was accepted. Unfortunately, the project had to be abandoned because of a lack of funds.
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Brunel's first important commission was the 630-foot-span Clifton suspension bridge near Bristol (1831). Unfinished in his lifetime, it was completed in 1864 as his memorial. He ... built the Hungerford (London) suspension bridge (1841-1845); its wrought-iron chains were used to complete the bridge at Clifton.
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Brunel became the Clifton bridge designer in 1830, when he won a competition at age 24 and was appointed project engineer -- his first major commission. Because of political and financial difficulties, the project was interrupted and abandoned... and Brunel died before the bridge was completed. It was finally finished and opened in 1864, five years after the engineer's death, but a lasting memorial to his life.
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