Robert Stephenson

Robert Stephenson was an English civil engineer, the only son of railway pioneer George Stephenson, who built on his father's work to become one of the most respected engineers of the mid-nineteenth century. He designed the locomotive Rocket, winner of the 1829 Rainhill Trials, and served as chief engineer of the London and Birmingham Railway, which opened in 1838. His later career centered on large-scale bridge building, including the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait in 1850, an innovative wrought-iron tubular design, the High Level Bridge over the River Tyne in 1849, and the Victoria Bridge across the St Lawrence River at Montreal, completed in 1859. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1849, served as a Member of Parliament for Whitby from 1847 until his death, and declined a British knighthood; he was buried in Westminster Abbey, an honor reflecting his standing as one of the era's foremost engineers.