Product Description
"A gazetteer and guidebook to inform anyone with an interest in civilisation." - Gordon Masterton, President 2005-06, Institution of Civil Engineers. This penultimate book in the "Civil Engineering Heritage" series for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland describes the visionary projects that created the opportunities for trade and wealth creation. It records Scotland's achievements as a civilisation through the enduring memorials that great engineers built. It celebrates the men of genius that could see beyond the status quo to a new paradigm - the civil engineers who laid down the foundations of the civilised world we enjoy today.This book is an inventory and a guide to a selection of historical engineering works carried out in Scotland over the centuries and includes works by many great engineers such as John Smeaton, the 'father of civil engineering' who made a significant contribution to the Lowlands and Borders infrastructure through the Forth & Clyde Canal and various bridges and harbours. The entries are arranged geographically in seven chapters progressing from south to north with coverage starting at the Mull of Galloway Lighthouse and concluding at the Tay bridges in Dundee.The areas covered are shown on chapter maps and each of the works covered includes details of its location, scale, the names of its Engineer and Contractor where known, and additional comments from the authors. It also includes supporting images where possible to illustrate the written word. With significant input from the PHEW Scottish Group Members past and present, the ICE Library and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), this book is a valuable reference and a recreational guide which conveys the invaluable contribution of civil engineering to the transport, water and power infrastructure of our civilisation. This is an essential read for civil engineers, historians, social commentators, industrial archaeologists, economists, politicians and those with a general interest in the history and development of Scotland. There is a companion book to this volume, which covers the Highland and Islands also published by Thomas Telford.
