Thomas Telford FRS, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish
Civil Engineer Architect and stonemason, and road, bridge and canal builder.
After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in
Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native
Scotland, as well as harbors and tunnels. Such was his reputation as a prolific
designer of highways and related bridges, he was dubbed The Colossus of Roads
(a pun on the Colossus of Rhodes), and reflecting his command of all types of
civil engineering in the early 19th century, he was elected as the
first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a post he held for 14
years until his death. Telford was born on 9 August 1757, at Glendenning a hill
farm 3 miles east of Eskdalemuir Kirk, in the rural parish of Wester Kirk in
Eskdale, Dumfrieddhire. His father john Telford a shepherd, died soon after
Thomas was born. Thomas was raised in poverty by his mother Janet Jackson (died
1794).At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a Stoneman, and some of his
earliest work can still be seen on the bridge across the River Esk in Langholm
in the Scottish borders.
