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Person

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

A portrait depicts a man with a full beard and curly hair, dressed in formal Victorian attire, seated on an ornate chair against a warm-toned background.

Victorian engineer (1806–1859) who built the Great Western Railway, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and the SS Great Eastern. Brunel believed Stephenson's narrow gauge crippled rail speed and stability, and laid the GWR at seven feet to prove it. He was probably right on the engineering and decisively wrong on the politics.

Mentioned in 3 articles