ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL--THE ROYAL ALBERT BRIDGE SALTASH.
ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL-THE ROYAL ALBERT BRIDGE.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born in Portsea, Portsmouth on 9 April 1806. He was the only son of Marc and Sophia Brunel, and had two sisters: Sophia and Emma.
Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849) was a French royalist and naval officer who had fled France in 1793 during the Reign of Terror. He arrived in Britain in the spring of 1799, having spent some time employed as a civil engineer and architect in New York (he became a US citizen in 1796). Marc had invented a series of machines for making pulley blocks for ships, which could significantly increase the quality and rate of their production. The war between Britain and France was an ideal opportunity to exploit this process. Marc had a letter of introduction to the First Lord of the Admiralty from a mutual acquaintance and received permission to come to Britain to set up a block-making factory in Portsmouth docks to supply the Royal Navy. Among his other activities, Marc Brunel designed machines for making army boots, knitting stockings, sawing timber, and printing, two suspension bridges at Ile de Bourbon near Mauritius and a
floating landing stage at Liverpool. His greatest accomplishment and biggest project was the tunnel he constructed beneath the Thames between Rotherhithe and Wapping. He was knighted in 1841 for his contribution to British engineering having achieved little by way of financial success but having gained the respect of his peers.
On 1 November 1799, Marc married Sophia Kingdom (1775-1855), the daughter of a Plymouth naval contractor. They had met in Rouen at the home of Marc’s adopted family, the Carpentiers, and in 1793 they were engaged to be married.
Soon after Isambard’s birth, the family left Portsmouth and moved to 10 Lindsey Row, Chelsea. As a boy, Marc Brunel had fallen out with his father, a prosperous farmer, because of his wish to become an engineer. Marc was pleased that his son Isambard showed an interest in engineering and taught him arithmetic, scale drawing and geometry at home. Despite the continuing financial struggle, Marc decided it was money well spent paying for his son’s education and sent him to a highly regarded pre-preparatory boarding school in Hove. While he was there, Brunel undertook a survey of the town and impressed his classmates when he predicted the partial collapse of a building being constructed opposite the school.
In 1846 the Cornwall Railway Act received Royal Assent and one of the conditions was that the ferry at Saltash should be replaced by a railway bridge thus linking Cornwall to the rest of the UK by rail.
His second plan was for a bridge with 2 spans of 300ft and 2 spans of 200ft, but after investigation it was found that there was no suitable bedrock on which to build the 3 piers.
Finally he decided that the bridge should have a single pier mid stream which would support 2 spans of 139 m (455ft).
It was originally intended to carry a two way track but the Cornwall Railway Company had insufficient funds – the reduction to a single track saved £100,000. After the first contractor went bankrupt, Brunel decided to take on the contract himself.
During the construction of the London Tunnel, his father Marc Brunel had used a form of diving bell with compressed air. Brunel adapted this for work on his bridge. He built a cylinder 85ft deep and 37ft in diameter. This was floated into the middle of the river and sunk. The water was pumped out and the top sealed. Compressed air was then pumped into the cylinder to allow up to 40 men to work within the tube. First they had to excavate 12 ft of mud followed by 3 ft of rock before a suitable foundation was located. Work then began to build the central tower of brick.
On July 4th 1853 the foundation for the first of the Cornish piers was laid by the Mayor of Saltash Mr W Rundle in Silver Street. The central pier was capped in 1856 and work then began to erect the four octagonal columns which were to hold the deck.
On September 1st 1857, watched by some 20,000 spectators, the first truss was floated out into the centre of the river supported by two barges. It took two hours, five navy vessels and 500 men to manoeuvre them through 45 degrees, where as the tide turned they then sank into position on to the piers. The truss was gradually raised at a rate of 6 feet a week using hydraulic jacks until on 1st July 1858 it reached its final height 100 feet above the water.
On July 10th 1858 the second span for the Devon side was floated out into the river. Word had spread about this amazing feat of engineering and special trains were laid on to bring spectators from London. Brunel by this time was too ill to attend.
The first test train, a South Devon Locomotive, crossed the bridge on 11th April 1859. His Royal Highness Prince Albert officially opened the bridge on 2nd May 1859. After visiting Coombe viaduct (at that time constructed of wood) he returned to Saltash station and walked back across the bridge to Devon to declare the bridge officially open.
Brunel did not attend the opening due to ill health. He finally crossed his bridge on an open wagon two days later. He died on 5th September 1859.
H.R.H. Prince Albert leaving on the steamer Vivid after the opening of the Bridge.
BRUNEL’S BIOGRAPHY.
1806 Isambard Kingdom Brunel born in Portsea.
1822 He returns to London after studying in Paris and joins the drawing office of his father, the eminent engineer, Marc Brunel.
1827 Was appointed resident engineer of the Thames Tunnel only to be seriously injured by flood damage in January 1828.
1829 While convalescing in Bristol, wins a competition to design the Clifton Bridge across the Avon Gorge.
1831 Completes work on an astronomical observatory for James South in London. Appointed engineer of dock at Monkwearmouth, Sunderland.
1833 Submits a proposal for the Great Western Railway from Bristol to London.
1835 Proposes broader 7 feet gauge for the GWR track and begins a battle for acceptance with GWR board. Designs the Maidenhead Bridge, Wharncliffe Viaduct and Hungerford Suspension Bridge.
1836 Married Mary Horsley and they move in to the floors above his office on Duke Street in Mayfair.
1837 The launch of SS Great Western in Bristol.
1839 His battle with the GWR board culminates in trials proving that Brunel’s broad gauge will enable locomotives to attain higher speeds.
1843 Launch of SS Great Britain in Bristol. Appointed surveyor and engineer of five regional railways including Monmouth & Hereford and Oxford & Rugby.
1845 Proposes a high bridge over the River Tamar – to be completed in 1852 – and is appointed engineer of the Cornish Railway.
1849 Starts work on the design of a new Paddington Station as the London terminus of the GWR.
1853 Signs the contract for the design of the ‘Great Ship’ or SS Great Eastern.
1855 Commissioned by the War Office to design a pre-fabricated 1,000-bed hospital for use in the Crimean War.
1857 Begins work on the East Bengal Railway in India.
1858 With work nearing completion on both the Royal Albert Bridge and SS Great Eastern, Brunel becomes ill and is ordered to travel – to the Alps and then Egypt – by his doctor.
1859 Opening of the Royal Albert Bridge, while Brunel is still abroad. He collapses of a heart attack on the deck of the SS Great Eastern two days before its launch and dies ten days later.
