The SS Great Britain
in its drydock alongside the Floating Harbour, viewed from Cabot Tower
on Brandon Hill.
The Great Britain was
the first iron-hulled steamship and was designed by ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL,
the most famous and influential
British civil engineer of the 19th century. Built in the same Bristol drydock
which
is now its permanent home,
it was launched in 1843. BRUNEL also designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge
which
spans the Avon gorge, although
lack of money meant that it was not completed until 1864, five years after
his death.
He was also responsible
for the development of the Great Western Railway and designed the Royal
Albert Bridge
across the River Tamar at
Saltash as well as the 2-mile-long tunnel at Box in Somerset, which was
by far the longest
tunnel of any kind to have
been built up to that time. BRUNEL died of a stroke in 1859 caused by the
stress of
launching his colossal steamship
the Great Eastern.