Modern (18th-20th Century)

This bridge almost did not see daylight; in fact, when it was realized that a railway link was necessary between both shores of river Forth, the solution brought forward was a tunnel. After a few studies,this approach was abandoned in 1806 and the idea of building a bridge was put forward. In 1818 a few designs were presented, namely the one submitted by Mr.James Anderson. The structure of the bridge was so light and not very strong and was described later as " such a light structure that it would almost have been impossible to see it on a somber day, and after a strong rainfall, it could not been seen anymore!" In 1865, a parliament resolution authorized the "North British Railway", and his engineer Thomas Bouch, to construct a bridge over the Forth. He proposed a suspended bridge with twin aprons of 1600 feet each. Engineer Bouch was also responsible for the bridge construction over the Tay river, which brough him lots letters of patent nobility.

Abraham Darby (the Grandfather of the famous bridge builder) was born in 1678 at Wrens Nest in the hamlet of Woodsetton in the Parish of Sedgley, Staffordshire, son of John & Ann Darby.

...The first of a succession of iron manufacturers who bore the same name, he was the son of a Quaker (Society of Friends) farmer residing at Wrens Nest, near Sedgley and served his apprenticeship with a maker of malt-kilns near Birmingham, Later he married and moved to Bristol around 1700, to begin business on his own.

In Bristol he was joined by three partners of the same Quaker persuasion, who provided the necessary capital to enable him to set up works at Baptist Mills, near the city. He carried on the business of malt-mill making and later added brass and iron founding

Thomas Bouch died during the public inquest into the failure of the high girders of the Tay Bridge at his country retreat in Moffat, and is buried at the Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.

He was the engineer to the Edinburgh and Northern Railway during which time he designed the train ferry crossing between Granton and Burntisland.

Afterwards he became a consulting engineer. As an engineer he had a reputation for being able to build lines very cheaply. He went on to design many short distance lines for companies which could not afford heavy engineering.

ELLET, Charles, civil engineer, was born at Penn's Manor, Bucks co., Penn., Jan. 1, 1810, son of Charles and Mary (Israel) Ellet, and grandson of Charles and Hannah (Carpenter) Ellet. His father, a farmer, was a member of a well-known Quaker family and his mother, daughter of Israel Israel of Philadelphia was one of the most remarkable women of her time, being alluded to by a Philadelphia journal as the "American Cornelia." The son was brought up on his father's farm and attended school at Bristol, Pa. From his earliest years he had shown an unusual talent and fondness for mathematics and at the age of sixteen had far outgrown the scope of the school's mathematical curriculum. After a course of study at the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France, he secured employment on various engineering works becoming first assistant and soon afterward chief engineer of the James river and Kanawha canal. His attention at this time was devoted chiefly to the study of methods of inland communication, more particularly suspension bridges, and in 1841-42, he constructed the wire suspension bridge across the Shuylkill river at Fairmont, the first of its kind in America.

In 1885, Gustav Lindenthal, a bridge engineer who established his reputation on two notable Pittsburgh spans, was approached by officials at the Pennsylvania Railroad regarding the feasibility of a railroad crossing across the Hudson River. At that time, the Pennsylvania Railroad was at a disadvantage vis-à-vis its chief competitor, the New York Central Railroad, because it did not have a direct entrance into Manhattan.

Because of the smoke that emanated from the locomotives of the era, the railroad favored a bridge across the Hudson rather than a tunnel. After giving serious thought to a cantilever design, Lindenthal decided upon a suspension bridge because such a design would allow wider distances between piers. However, the suspension bridge would have to have a main span of about 3,000 feet, nearly twice the length of the main span of the Brooklyn Bridge completed two years earlier.

Personal author:
Ellet, Charles, 1810-1862.

Title:
Report on a rail-way suspension bridge across the
Connecticut, at Middletown, with a proposal for its
construction, to a committee of the citizens of

James Finley: Born 1762, Deceased 1828, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, USA. Participation in the following structures: builder, Jacob's Creek Bridge (1801).

Lennox's arrival in New South Wales opened a new chapter in the bridge-building history of the colony. He built a series of stone bridges, some of which are still standing. In 1844 he moved to Melbourne, where he had charge of all roads, bridges, wharves and ferries, acted as advisory engineer to various government departments and built 53 bridges.
Career Highlights:
Born Ayr, Scotland. Arrived Sydney 1832; Sub-Inspector of Roads 1832-33; Superintendent of Bridges 1833-43; district surveyor to the Parramatta Council 1843-44; Superintendent of Bridges, Port Phillip District 1844-53. Built a number of stone bridges, including one on the main western road at Lapstone Hill, the Lansdowne Bridge on the main southern road near Liverpool, the Lennox Bridge over the Parramatta River and the first Prince's Bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne.

Alexander Lawson's engraving, "Architectural Plan and Elevation of the Schuylkill P. Bridge," illustrates A Statistical Account of the Schuylkill Permanent Bridge, Communicated to the Philadelphia Society of Agriculture, 1806 (Philadelphia: Printed by Jane Aitken, 1807), which was bound with the first volume of the Society's Memoirs. The Society's interest in such a structure acknowledges its importance to the development of the Philadelphia region, both agriculturally and commercially.

The use of coke as a fuel to smelt iron had been attempted in the second half of the 17th Century, but the first successful process was established by Abraham Darby around 1709 at his newly acquired ironworks in the Coalbrookdale, Shropshire. This was a major industrial breakthrough because it allowed the casting of much larger pieces than the old charcoal fuel process, which had been largely restricted to pots and kettles. Darby’s achievement in mastering the coke smelting process enabled this small valley in Shropshire to become the cradle of the world’s industrial revolution. The products of Darby’s ironworks were shipped down the River Severn by barge to Bristol and thence all over Britain and progressively outwards to Europe and the rest of the world.