LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Great Eastern
built 656 days ago
Marc Isambard Brunel left his native France in 1793. First he went to New York but in 1799 he settled in London. His greatest project was the tunnel under the Thames, which was dug from 1825 till 1842. In this work he was assisted by his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Isambard became Head Engineer at the Great Western railway line and constructed the Thames bridge at Maidenhead and the Wye bridge at Chepstow. He ... built ships, of which the Great Eastern (1857) is the most famous.
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The Brunel University website has a section on Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It provides a biographical article, and illustrated articles on several of his major projects. These include: The Great Eastern, The Great Western, The Great Britain, Saltash Bridge, Maidenhead Bridge, and Clifton Suspension Bridge.
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The work for which Brunel is probably best remembered is his construction of a network of tunnels, bridges and viaducts for the Great Western Railway. In 1833, he was appointed their chief engineer and work began on the line that linked London to Bristol. Impressive achievements during its construction included the viaducts at Hanwell and Chippenham, the Maidenhead Bridge, the Box Tunnel and Bristol Temple Meads Station. Brunel is noted for introducing the broad gauge in place of the standard gauge on this line. While working on the line from Swindon to Gloucester and South Wales he devised the combination of tubular, suspension and truss bridge to cross the Wye at Chepstow. This design was further improved in his famous bridge over the Tamar at Saltash near Plymouth.
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In 2002, the BBC conducted a vote to discover the 100 Greatest Britons of all time, coming only second to Sir Winston Churchill, Isambard Kingdom Brunel is rightly regarded as one of the greatest Britons who has ever lived. His remarkable achievements, most of which can be enjoyed today, are testament to his genius.
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In March 1833 Brunel, at the age of twenty-seven, was appointed engineer of the newly-projected Great Western railway. For several years his energies were taxed to the utmost by the conflict with obstructive landowners and short-sighted critics; but he showed himself equal to the occasion, not only as a professional man, but as a persuasive negotiator. Among the engineering triumphs on that railway are the Hanwell viaduct, the Maidenhead bridge and the Box tunnel, at the time the longest in the world. The famous "battle of the gauges" took its rise from his introduction of the broad (7 ft.) gauge on that line. In 1846 he resigned his office as engineer of the Great Western railway. In 1844 he had recommended the adoption of the atmospheric system on the South Devon railway, but after a year's trial the system was abandoned.
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The son of noted engineer Sir Marc Brunel, Isambard K. Brunel first rose to prominence as the resident engineer of the Thames Tunnel, his father's greatest achievement. The first major river tunnel ever built, Isambard spent nearly two years trying to drive the horizontal shaft from one side to the other. Two severe incidents of flooding injured the younger Brunel and ended work on the tunnel for several years, though it was eventually completed.
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