The Civil Engineering of Canals and Railways Before 1850 (Studies in the History of Civil Engineering, Vol 7)

Between 1750 and 1850 the British landscape was transformed by a transport revolution which involved engineering works on a scale not seen in Europe since Roman times. The economic background of the canal and railway ages are relatively well known, and the aim of this book is to examine the history of how the engineering works themselves were made possible. This book brings together a series of papers which seek to answer the questions of how canals and railways were built, how the engineers responsible organized the works, how they were designed and what the role of the contractors was in the process.