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[[Image:I.K.Brunel.jpg|thumb|right|Isambard Kingdom Brunel]]'''Isambard Kingdom Brunel''' (1806–1859), was a leading British civil engineer, famed for his bridges and dockyards, and especially for the construction of the first major British [[railway]], the Great Western, and for inventing the modern iron ship.  

[[Image:I.K.Brunel.jpg|thumb|right|Isambard Kingdom Brunel]]'''Isambard Kingdom Brunel''' (1806–1859), was a leading British civil engineer, famed for his bridges and dockyards, and especially for the construction of the first major British [[railway]], the Great Western, and for inventing the modern iron ship.  

==Career==

==Career==

He was the only son of Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849),  a royalist who fled the French Revolution and built a career as a mechanical engineer in London.<ref> Father and son were both called Isambard, an old family name.</ref> The father is best known for the Thames Tunnel, the first major underwater tunnel.<ref> See Thames Tunnel Company, ''An explanation of the works of the tunnel under the Thames from Rotherhithe to Wapping'' (1840) online at [http://books.google.com/books?id=KH8HAAAAQAAJ&dq=intitle:tunnel&num=30&as_brr=1] </ref>  The son at age 14 was sent to France for schooling, but failed the admission test for the Ecole Polytechnique, studied watchmaking in Paris; he returned to London to apprentice with his father. He was badly injured in an 1828 accident on the Thames Tunnel project.

He was the only son of Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849),  a royalist who fled the French Revolution and built a career as a mechanical engineer in [[London]].<ref> Father and son were both called Isambard, an old family name.</ref> The father is best known for the Thames Tunnel, the first major underwater tunnel.<ref> See Thames Tunnel Company, ''An explanation of the works of the tunnel under the Thames from Rotherhithe to Wapping'' (1840) online at [http://books.google.com/books?id=KH8HAAAAQAAJ&dq=intitle:tunnel&num=30&as_brr=1] </ref>  The son at age 14 was sent to France for schooling, but failed the admission test for the Ecole Polytechnique, studied watchmaking in Paris; he returned to London to apprentice with his father. He was badly injured in an 1828 accident on the Thames Tunnel project.

 

==Bridges==

==Bridges==

Recuperating in Bristol, Brunel was the prize winner of a local contest, proposing a spectacular suspension bridge over the River Avon.  Funds ran out, but the bridge was eventually completed as a memorial after his death.  Isambard Brunel was a volcano of brilliant ideas at the cutting edge of civil engineering, but based on rigorous mathematical designs and models. Bristol businessmen financed his plans to upgrade  the city’s docks.   

Recuperating in Bristol, Brunel was the prize winner of a local contest, proposing a spectacular suspension bridge over the River Avon.  Funds ran out, but the bridge was eventually completed as a memorial after his death.  Isambard Brunel was a volcano of brilliant ideas at the cutting edge of civil engineering, but based on rigorous mathematical designs and models. Bristol businessmen financed his plans to upgrade  the city’s docks.