Isambard Kingdom Brunel Biography

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a great English civil engineer who lived during the 19th century. He was the man who built the Great Western Railway, the railway company which linked London with the west part of England. The company, which pioneered the use of large, more economic wagons, was known as "God's Wonderful Railway". Brunel was a civil engineer with a highly innovative mind. He was always open to experimenting with different engineering techniques and ideas in order to devise better solutions to the existing problems. Many “firsts” in British civil engineering are credited to him. A risk-taker, he was never afraid to move away from traditionally held notions nor was he loath to implement unconventional concepts. He came up with the idea of building a tunnel under a river and played a pivotal role in the development of the first propeller-driven iron ship meant to sail on the oceans thus revolutionizing naval engineering. His brilliant mind could have achieved much more, if he had not been a heavy smoker. He suffered a stroke and died when he was just 53. Named at the second place in a BBC public poll, ‘100 Greatest Britons’, he was a much celebrated civil engineer during his time; several monuments erected in his honor are testament to the fact that is revered in today’s times too.