Statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, English civil engineer.

UNITED KINGDOM - MAY 23: Statue at Paddington Station, London, which has since been moved. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) was an inventor and civil engineer. On leaving school in 1822 he worked alongside his father Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849) on the construction of the Thames Tunnel. As chief engineer of the Great Western Railway (1833-1858), he designed many bridges and viaducts, including the Royal Albert Bridge in Cornwall and the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. The famous steamships �Great Western�, the �Great Britain� and the �Great Eastern� were also conceived by him in 1835 as a means to extend the GWR line across the Atlantic. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)