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Bazalgette’s London sewers

In the summer of 1858, while the Great Eastern was being fitted out for her maiden voyage, London was in the grip of a crisis known as the ‘Great Stink’. The population had grown rapidly during the first half of the 19th century, yet there had been no provision for sanitation.

Three epidemics of cholera had swept through the city, leaving over 30,000 people dead. And sewage was everywhere, piling up in every gully and alleyway, in the cellars of houses in poor districts – and even seeping through cracks in floorboards.

Leading engineer Joseph Bazalgette proposed a bold scheme to build proper sewers: 82 miles of sewage superhighway, linked with over 1,000 miles of street sewers, to provide an underground network beneath the city streets.

He drove himself to the limits of endurance as he struggled to realise his subterranean vision – a task made particularly difficult by his need to compete with the new underground railway, a network of roads, and emerging overland railway systems. But his grand design for a sewer system did eventually transform the city into the first glittering modern metropolis, setting a standard that was quickly copied the world over.

More Info:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/seven_wonders_01.shtml

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The Transcontinental Railway

By the middle of the 19th century, the benefits brought by the host of advances of the industrial age were gradually beginning to reach America, which soon developed a spectacular achievement of its own – the Transcontinental Railway, reaching right across the continent.

With two teams, one building from the east and the other from California in the west, they battled against hostile terrain, hostile inhabitants, civil war and the Wild West. Yet in 1869, the two teams’ tracks were joined, shrinking the whole American continent, as the journey from New York to San Francisco was reduced from months to days.

More Info:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/seven_wonders_01.shtml

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Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s colossal ship, the Great Eastern, is the only wonder described here that has not survived to the 21st century. In the early 1850s, Brunel hoped the ship would be his masterpiece, and that it would provide an enduring link to even the most farflung parts of the empire.

… his concept became the blue print for ship design for years to come.
At a time when most ships moored in the Thames were built to traditional designs in wood, and powered by sail, Brunel’s ‘Great Ship’ was almost 700 feet long, a floating island made of iron. His vision was that it should carry 4,000 passengers, in magnificent style, as far as the Antipodes – without needing to refuel.

The design was revolutionary, incorporating a double hull that made the ship unsinkable, and enormous engines as high as a house. Brunel faced considerable criticism: his ship was too big, it was too expensive, it would sink, or break its back on the first big wave – if, that is, he could actually manage to launch it. In fact his concept became the blue print for ship design for years to come.

More Info:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/seven_wonders_01.shtml

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The period of over 125 years from the beginning of the 19th century saw the creation of some of the world’s most remarkable feats of engineering. These are now celebrated as great wonders of the world – revealing as much about human creativity and the determination of the human spirit as they do of technological endeavour.

The pioneers of the age were practical visionaries, seeing beyond the immediate horizon … as they cut a path to the future.
The wonders described here cover a great range. They include Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s extraordinary ship – the Great Eastern, sometimes known as the Crystal Palace of the Seas – which its designer hoped would travel between the two farthest ends of the British empire, and the ground-breaking Panama Canal, which linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans more than half a century later.

The slowly evolving industrial revolution was the fertile ground that gave life to these dreams in iron, cement, stone and steel. The pioneers of the age were practical visionaries, seeing beyond the immediate horizon, the safe and the known, as they cut a path to the future.

Yet their unique masterpieces could never have been built without an army of unsung heroes, the craftsmen and workers also willing to risk their lives as they laboured to bring each dream to life. Not to mention the financiers and shareholders hanging on for the ride, as reputations were lost and won.

The journey from the oldest ‘wonder’ described here, the Bell Rock Lighthouse, to the most recent, the Hoover Dam, illustrates the swiftly moving frontiers of technological progress in the 19th century. And each ‘wonder’ serves as a unique monument, a marker for what was known at the time it was created.

The Bell Rock Lighthouse

Robert Stevenson’s Bell Rock Lighthouse was created off the east coast of Scotland between 1807 and 1811, when the world was very different from how it is today. Stevenson, the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson, had dreamed for years of making his mark on the world, by bringing light to the treacherous Scottish coast. He aimed to take on the most dangerous place of all, the Bell Rock, a large reef 11 miles out to sea, dangerously positioned in the approach to the Firth of Forth.

… the oldest offshore lighthouse still standing anywhere in the world.
In 1799, over 70 ships went down in a violent storm that raged along the coast, yet still the authorities opposed his plan. How could anyone build a lighthouse 11 miles out to sea, on a rock that was submerged by up to 16 feet of water for most of the day? Battling against the odds, Stevenson did eventually build his lighthouse, and to this day it shines out across the North Sea, the oldest offshore lighthouse still standing anywhere in the world.

More Info:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/seven_wonders_01.shtml

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Around the World in 80 Treasures is a riveting story of adventure and the pursuit of knowledge.
Dan Cruickshank’s quest for this enlightening TV series is to tell the story of civilisation through the greatest of man’s achievements. It is also the story of his travels, and who and what he meets along the way. Whether standing before the solemn heads of Easter Island, investigating the mysterious Nazca lines in Peru or the magnificent temple of Borobodur in Java, Dan is never less than fascinating about the origins, construction, mysteries and vicissitudes of each of these monuments to the great civilisations of the world.

Do they live up to expectation? Have they been left in ruin, or over-restored? Along the way, Dan reveals his most intimate thoughts and feelings about the people he meets, the ups and downs of the journey, perils, joys, and the ongoing relationships formed on the road.

More Info:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450898/

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