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Completing London Bridge: The London Bridge, on the same site but not the same structure as the bridge in the nursery rhyme, was found to be sinking into the Thames River at a rate of about one inch (2.5 cm) every eight years. Consequently, in April 1968, the city of London sold the bridge to a U.S. firm, which planned to transport it, brick by brick, to Arizona; there, it would be rebuilt over a man-made channel at Lake Havasu City.
GEORGE RENNIE (1791-1866) and SIR JOHN RENNIE (1794-1874), his sons, carried on his business after his death. The civil engineering projects were undertaken chiefly by John, who was knighted on completing London Bridge in 1831. He also completed the Lincolnshire fens drainage and Plymouth breakwater projects begun by his father, and was active in many other harbor works, also partly as Admiralty engineer. He laid out a railway system for Sweden in 1852.
In London he built the old Waterloo Bridge (1811-1817; demolition begun in 1934) and Southwark Bridge (1813-1819; rebuilt 1912-1921) ; designed London Bridge (completed after his death by his son John) ; and constructed or improved the London docks and the West India and East India docks. Elsewhere he worked on Holyhead harbor, Hull docks, Ramsgate harbor, and Sheerness and Chatham dockyards; designed the great mile-long breakwater across Plymouth Sound; and launched extensive drainage work in the Lincolnshire fens. Among his appointments was that of engineer to the Admiralty. He was a pioneer in the extensive use of the diving bell and the steam-dredging machine. |
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