The Victorian Era

Victorian Engineering Marvels

Article · Science & Invention · The Victorian Era, 1837–1901

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The Victorian era saw the development of the modern engineering profession, and the engineering works of the period transformed the British landscape, the British economy, and the British world. The period saw the construction of great bridges, tunnels, railways, harbours, docks, waterworks, gasworks, and sewers, and the export of the British model of civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering to every continent. The great names of the era, Brunel, Bazalgette, Stephenson, Baker, Fowler, Paxton, Whitworth, Armstrong, and the lesser-known engineers and contractors who built under their direction, established the principles and the practice of the modern engineering industry. The history of engineering is examined in Victorian Science, Invention, and Technology, and the context of the period is set out in The Victorian Era: A Complete Historical Overview.

The Great Civil Engineering Works

The Victorian era saw the construction of a remarkable concentration of great civil engineering works. The most important civil engineering works of the period included the Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel under a navigable river, completed in 1843 by Marc Isambard Brunel; the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait, completed in 1850 by Robert Stephenson; the Crystal Palace, the great exhibition hall of the Great Exhibition of 1851, completed in 1851 by Joseph Paxton; the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, completed in 1859 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel; the London Sewerage System, completed in 1875 by Joseph Bazalgette; the Forth Bridge, the great cantilever bridge across the Firth of Forth, completed in 1890 by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker; the Tower Bridge, the great bascule bridge across the River Thames, completed in 1894 by Horace Jones and John Wolfe Barry; and the Manchester Ship Canal, completed in 1894 by Edward Leader Williams. The history of the London sewerage system is examined in How was the London sewer system built?, and the history of the Crystal Palace in What was the Great Exhibition of 1851?.

The Great Bridges

The Victorian era saw the construction of a remarkable concentration of great bridges. The most important bridges of the period included the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait, completed in 1850 by Robert Stephenson, with its two rectangular iron tubes of 460 feet clear span, an early use of wrought iron in bridge construction; the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, completed in 1859 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, with its two main spans of 455 feet carried on a single central pier, an early use of the lenticular truss; the Clifton Suspension Bridge across the Avon Gorge, completed in 1864 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, William Henry Barlow, and John Hawkshaw, with its 702-foot span 245 feet above the river; the Forth Bridge, the great cantilever bridge across the Firth of Forth, completed in 1890 by John Fowler and Benjamin Baker, with its two main spans of 1,710 feet, the first major bridge in Britain to be built of steel; the Tower Bridge, the great bascule bridge across the River Thames, completed in 1894 by Horace Jones and John Wolfe Barry, with its two 1,000-ton bascules; and the Hammersmith Bridge, completed in 1887 by Joseph Bazalgette. The history of Tower Bridge is examined in What is the history of Tower Bridge?.

The Great Tunnels

The Victorian era saw the construction of a long sequence of great tunnels. The most important tunnels of the period included the Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel under a navigable river, completed in 1843 by Marc Isambard Brunel; the Primrose Hill Tunnel, completed in 1837 by Robert Stephenson, the first of the great railway tunnels; the Kilsby Tunnel, completed in 1838 by Robert Stephenson on the London and Birmingham Railway; the Box Tunnel, completed in 1841 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the Great Western Railway; the Standedge railway tunnel, completed in 1849 on the Huddersfield and Manchester Railway; the Woodhead Tunnel, completed in 1852 by Joseph Locke on the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway; the Netherton Tunnel, completed in 1858 on the Birmingham Canal; the Blea Moor Tunnel on the Settle and Carlisle line, completed in 1875; and the Tower Subway, the first tube tunnel under the Thames, completed in 1870 by James Henry Greathead using a smaller version of the Brunel shield. The history of the Thames Tunnel is examined in Who built the first underwater tunnel?, and the history of the Tower Subway and the early tube railways in What was the London Underground like in Victorian times?.

The Great Railways

The Victorian era saw the construction of the great railway trunk lines. The most important railways of the period included the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, completed in 1830 by George Stephenson, the first inter-city steam-powered railway; the London and Birmingham Railway, completed in 1838 by Robert Stephenson; the Great Western Railway, whose main line from London to Bristol, engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was completed in 1841; the Midland Railway, formed in 1844; the London and North Western Railway, formed in 1846; the Great Northern Railway, whose main line from King’s Cross opened in 1852; the North Eastern Railway, formed in 1854; the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway; the Great Eastern Railway, formed in 1862; the South Eastern Railway; the London, Chatham and Dover Railway; and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, formed in 1846. The history of the railway is examined in Railway Boom in Victorian Britain and in Transport in the Victorian Era.

The Great Docks and Harbours

The Victorian era saw the construction of a long sequence of great docks and harbours. Victorian trade was served by the older London docks of the early nineteenth century, the West India Docks of 1802, the London Docks of 1805, the East India Docks of 1806, and the St Katharine Docks, completed in 1828 by Thomas Telford and Philip Hardwick, and by the great new works of the period itself: the Royal Victoria Dock, completed in 1855; the Royal Albert Dock, completed in 1880; the Tilbury Docks, completed in 1886; and the Manchester Ship Canal, completed in 1894 by Edward Leader Williams. The history of the docks is examined in Victorian Cities, Transport, and Entertainment.

The Great Waterworks

The Victorian era saw a great expansion of the waterworks. London was supplied by private companies, the New River Company founded in the seventeenth century, and the Chelsea, West Middlesex, Grand Junction, Southwark and Vauxhall, East London, Lambeth, and Kent waterworks, which extended their reservoirs, filter beds, and pumping stations over the period. The Metropolis Water Act of 1852 required the filtration of water drawn from the Thames, and the Metropolis Water Act of 1871 extended the requirement to all of the metropolitan water companies. Outside London, the great provincial waterworks included the Manchester Corporation Waterworks, which opened the Thirlmere scheme in 1894, and the Liverpool Corporation Waterworks, which opened the Vyrnwy scheme in 1888. The history of the waterworks is examined in Victorian Cities, Transport, and Entertainment.

The Great Gasworks

The Victorian era saw the construction of a long sequence of great gasworks. Gas lighting spread rapidly during the period, supplied by companies such as the Gas Light and Coke Company, chartered in 1812 as the world’s first public gas undertaking, the Imperial Continental Gas Association, founded in 1824, and the South Metropolitan Gas Company, together with many smaller metropolitan and provincial concerns. Their gasworks lit the streets, factories, and homes of the Victorian city, and by the end of the century gas was also widely used for cooking and heating. The gas industry was the model for the later electrical industry, and the techniques of municipal regulation developed for gas were applied to the new utilities of the late nineteenth century. The history of the gasworks is examined in The Victorian Economy and Industrialization.

The Great Industrial Buildings

The Victorian era saw the construction of a long sequence of great industrial buildings. The most important industrial buildings of the period included the great factories, mills, foundries, workshops, warehouses, department stores, market buildings, railway termini, and exhibition halls. The great railway termini of London, Euston (1837), Paddington (1854), Waterloo (1848), King’s Cross (1852), Victoria (1860), Charing Cross (1864), Cannon Street (1866), St Pancras (1868), Liverpool Street (1874), and Marylebone (1899), were the cathedrals of the new industrial age. The great exhibition buildings, the Crystal Palace of 1851, the Royal Albert Hall of 1871, and the Alexandra Palace of 1873, were the public face of the new industrial culture. The great warehouses and exchanges, the Corn Exchange of 1847, the Coal Exchange of 1849, the Leadenhall Market of 1881, and the Smithfield Market of 1868, were the centres of the new commerce. The history of the industrial buildings is examined in Famous Victorian Buildings and Landmarks.

The Engineering Profession

The Victorian era also saw the establishment of the modern engineering profession. The Institution of Civil Engineers, founded in 1818, was granted a Royal Charter in 1828, and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, founded in 1847 at the Queen Street Tavern in Birmingham by George Stephenson and his colleagues, became the model for the engineering institutions of the later nineteenth century. The Institution of Electrical Engineers was founded in 1871 as the Society of Telegraph Engineers, the Institution of Naval Architects in 1860, the Iron and Steel Institute in 1869, and the Institution of Gas Engineers in 1863. The Engineering Council, the registering body, was not established until 1964, but the Victorian institutions together established the professional standards, the examination system, the technical journal, and the convention of consulting engineer and contractor that are still the basis of the modern profession. The history of these institutions is part of the wider history of the Victorian Era: A Complete Historical Overview, and it is one of the lasting legacies of the period.