150 YEARS OF CLIFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE

A photographic history in big quality softback celebrating the great engineering achievement of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge which he called in his diary 'My first child, my darling.' Along with his Bristol Temple Meads Railway Station, it remains the great ornament of Bristol. Chapters include A Great Publick Utility, The Dirtiest Great Shop, A Rage for Building, This Noble Appreciation of Art, A Monument of Architectural Taste and Splendour, and The Bridge Since 1864 among them, plus facts and figures on Brunel the man, his timeline and a bridge timeline and a Clifton Suspension Bridge Act of 1830. An international symbol of the City of Bristol since its opening in 1864, the strength of feeling for the bridge has not diminished. However, its journey into being was not a smooth one. The funding, design and construction were all fraught with difficulty as Brunel and his contemporaries worked at the forefront of engineering in their time, trying and testing unknown materials, techniques and theories. Five years after his death in 1864, and an astonishing 33 years since construction began, the completed bridge was finally unveiled. An authority on its history, Michael Pascoe uncovers many previously unknown facts about the bridge, Bristol and Brunel himself and he uses outstanding archive and modern photography in this glamorous very large softback. 96pp, colour.