The 50 Greatest Engineers by Paul Virr

Author:Paul Virr [Virr, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Engineering
ISBN: 9781398816961
Publisher: Arcturus Digital Limited

The monument to Bazalgette on the Victoria Embankment.

At the time, it was thought that cholera was transmitted through the air as a miasma and that flushing waste below ground would prevent the foul air from affecting people. Instead, it was the avoidance of polluted waters that helped prevent further outbreaks.

Bazalgette had the foresight to make the sewer pipes twice the diameter recommended, assuming the population of London would continue to increase. He was, of course, correct, and his sewage system was able to cope with the capital’s needs for more than a hundred years.

Bazalgette not only controlled what passed beneath London’s streets, he also remapped above ground. As a measure for restricting the river’s flow, Bazalgette ordered the reclamation of land on both Thames riversides, creating the new embankments Albert, Chelsea and Victoria. The 2 km- (1.25 mile-) long Victoria Embankment near Westminster incorporated a subway and an underground railway. The work also helped traffic flow in the city and provided an estimated an extra 21 hectares (52 acres) of land. Bazalgette also designed three new bridges over the Thames, at Battersea, Hammersmith and Putney, and oversaw plans for 3,000 new streets. Few engineers could take as much credit as Bazalgette for transforming the map and well-being of a city.

Joseph Bazalgette was knighted in 1874. Following in the footsteps of both Thomas Telford (see page 72) and George Stephenson (see page 84), Bazalgette was made president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1884. By the time of his death on 15 March 1891, cholera was no longer feared by Londoners, who could breathe deep without discomfort.

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