BRUNEL, Isambard Kingdom - b. 1806 Portsmouth, d. 1859 London

English engineer. He was one of the most versatile and audacious engineers of the 19th century, responsible for the design of tunnels, bridges, railway lines and ships.

In 1831, Brunel’s designs won the competition for the Clifton Suspension Bridge across the River Avon. Construction began the same year but it was not completed until 1864.

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.

Clifton Suspension Bridge

As in industrialization generally, Britain pioneered the use of the new building materials of iron and glass. An important area for the use of iron was for bridges.

The Clifton Suspension Bridge spans Avon Gorge, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Spanning over 214 m, and nominally 76 m above the River Avon, it had the longest span of any bridge in the world at the time of construction. It is one of the first and technically most daring suspension bridges. The towers are modeled on Egyptian pylons, blending technical progress and Romanticism even in an engineering structure.