Modern (18th-20th Century)

Thomas Cubitt was responsible for many large London projects including Belgravia centred around Belgrave Square, Pimlico, much of Bloomsbury and the East front of Buckingham Palace. He built three thousand feet of the Thames Embankment at his own expense.

Elsewhere, he build a similarly large development in Brighton called Kemp Town, and Osborne House on the Isle of Wight which was completed in 1851.

Queen Victoria regarded as 'her' Cubitt and after his death said of him "In his sphere of life, with the immense business he had in hand, he is a real national loss. A better, kindhearted or more simple, unassuming man never breathed."

A Chronology-
1783 - On May 3, Phoenix Iron decided on starting an iron works. For the next seven years, activity got underway in preparation for the manufacture of iron and iron products.
1790 - A rolling and slitting mill and a nail factory started operating. French Creek was dammed a short distance from North Main St. In the nail factory, plates were made from rolled bars. The width of the bars rolled determined the length of the nails.
1809- The property was called the French Creek Works. A new frame nail factory was built at this time and here was installed the first machine for cutting nails. This machine was the invention of Thomas Odiorne. It has been determined that the machine-made nails at this time were the first made by machinery in the country, with Phoenixville getting the credit.

The King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio was founded by Zenas King in 1858 and produced bridges of iron and steel all over the county for the next 64 years. After Zenas died in 1892, his sons James and Harry took over the Company’s direction until it ended operations in 1922. Zenas had the foresight to see that there was a nationwide need for iron bridges and that a well organized system of production and delivery was required to supply it. Before the fax and telephone, Zenas had set up a network of sales agents all over the country, armed with impressive catalogues, who would secure orders for bridges, mainly from town and county authorities. From the factory in Cleveland, component parts of the bridge structure were shipped by railroad to the building site where a local crew supervised by King’s agent would undertake the assembly. In this way, by the mid 1880s the Company had produced over 5,000 bridges of all sizes and shapes, well over 200 in New York State alone, which was one of its largest markets. The Company became one of the largest and most active of the iron bridge builders during this period and its exploits in creating the nation’s transportation infrastructure are well known to bridge historians.

Debate about the descriptor for Victoria's second university was not prolonged and through an enabling Act 1958, Monash University became one of a very few universities in the world named after a military hero. Of German-Jewish immigrant stock Sir John Monash was Australian, indeed Victorian, to the core and is still regarded as Australia's greatest fighting General. He was possessed of such diverse talents that his scholastic failures as a young man serve to remind us that even great men are human and that focus, application and determination are key ingredients for success as much in academia as in other spheres of life.

Engineer and leading railway contractor. Born in Houston (Renfrewshire), the son of a spinner. He started work in a cotton mill at the age of only 9, but by 1863 had joined a company of bridge manufacturers in Glasgow. By 1872 he had his own business, the Dalmarnock Iron Works in the east end of the city.

John Monash ran a successful engineering business chiefly in Victoria (Australia) but also in South Australia and to some extent Tasmania from 1894 to 1914. He pursued a parallel career in the Citizen Military Forces. Late in 1914, at the age of 49, he left for WW1 and gained fame as a commander of ANZAC and allied forces on the Western Front. On his return he played a leading role in the establishment of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria.

This website presents stories of engineering design and construction from the period prior to WW1, with photographs and drawings. No technical knowledge is required to follow the stories which contain much human interest.

Stowell Park Suspension Bridge is an private accommodation bridge over the canal, serving Stowell Park on the north side, giving access to Lower Bristow Copse on the south side of the canal.
The bridge is an elegant web of iron; Dredge's Patent; 42 miles 60 chains from Reading. It was erected at the private expense of Colonel Wroughton of Wilcot, 1845.

See "Album of Designs of the Phoenix Bridge Company."

the King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company of Cleveland, Ohio (later the King Bridge Company) was founded by Zenas King in 1858. Many of the Company's bridges were used during America's expansion West in the late 1800's and early 1900's and some of these bridges are still standing today. The bridge pictured on this website represent some of the beautiful King iron bridges. We are trying to locate any existing ones in order to preserve these pieces of American history.

The King Iron Bridge Co. played an important role in the development and construction of metal truss bridges, a product of American engineering and construction technology, nationwide during the later part of the Nineteenth Century. The King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Co. was organized under that name in Cleveland in 1871 by Zenas King, who had started his career in building bridges in 1858. King came to Cleveland from Cincinnati around 1861, and by 1865 had established his works on Wason (East 38th St.) between St. Clair and Hamilton Avenue. The Company moved to a larger plant on Ruskin Ave.(East 69th St.) around 1888.