Thomas Telford, sometimes known to his contemporaries as 'the Colossus of Roads', was one of the giants of the heroic age of civil engineering in Britain. His career, which spanned half a century up to his death in 1834, links the trial-and-error period of engineering which typified the eighteenth-century Industrial Revolution to the great age of the professionals like Brunel in the Victorian era.Today, Telford is probably best remembered for his Menai Straits and Conwy bridges, and for the stunning Pontcysyllte aqueduct over the river Dee, but the variety and scope of his projects was truly awe-inspiring. They ranged from the renovation of Shrewsbury Castle to the construction of bridges by the dozen, and included several major canals, a substantial proportion of the entire transport infrastructure of Scotland - roads, bridges, harbours and the massive undertaking of the Caledonian Canal which cuts the country in two along the line of the Great Glen - as well as the Gotha Canal in Sweden and the reconstruction of the London - Holyhead road.For a man who began his career as an apprentice stonemason at Langholm near his birthplace in the Scottish lowlands, such achievements might seem monument enough. But in fact, as Anthony Burton shows, Telford's interests and influence extended well beyond the boundaries of his chosen profession. Read Less