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Seven Wonders Of The Industrial World

Introduction by series producer and author Deborah Cadbury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Programme synopses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Biographies – the pioneers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Biographies – the actors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Biographies – the production team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Where to find out more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Contents

Seven Wonders Of The Industrial World


The great achievements celebrated in this seriesreveal as much about the human spirit as they doabout technological endeavour.The period of over125 years from the beginning of the 19th centurysaw the creation of some of the world’s mostremarkable feats of engineering, from IsambardKingdom Brunel’s extraordinary Great Eastern, the“Crystal Palace of the Seas” that he hoped wouldjoin the two ends of the British empire, to thePanama Canal, that linked the Atlantic and Pacificoceans more than half a century later.

The slowly evolving industrial revolution was thefertile ground that gave life to these dreams in iron,cement, stone and steel.The pioneers of the agewere practical visionaries, seeing beyond theimmediate horizon, the safe and the known as theycut a path to the future.Yet their uniquemasterpieces could never have been built withoutan army of unsung heroes, the craftsmen andworkers also willing to risk their lives as theylaboured to bring each dream to life. Not tomention the financiers and shareholders hanging onfor the ride as reputations were lost and won.

The journey from the oldest “wonder” featured inthe series, the Bell Rock Lighthouse, to the mostrecent, the Hoover Dam, illustrates the swiftly

moving frontiers of technological progress. Each“wonder” serves as a unique monument, a marker for what was known at the time.The world was avery different place when the Bell Rock Lighthousewas created off the east coast of Scotland between1807 and 1811.

Robert Stevenson, the grandfather of Robert LouisStevenson, dreamed for years of making his markon the world by bringing light to the treacherousScottish coast. He aimed to take on the mostdangerous place of all, the Bell Rock, a large reef, 11miles out to sea, dangerously positioned in theapproach to the Firth of Forth. In 1799, over 70ships went down in a violent storm that ragedalong the coast, yet still the authorities opposed hisplan. How could anyone build a lighthouse 11 milesout to sea, on a rock which was submerged by upto 16 feet of water for most of the day? Battlingagainst the odds, Stevenson did eventually build hislighthouse and, to this day, it shines out across theNorth Sea, the oldest offshore lighthouse stillstanding anywhere in the world.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s colossal ship, the GreatEastern, is the only wonder in this series that hasnot survived to the 21st century. In the early1850s, Brunel hoped the Great Eastern would be his

5Seven Wonders Of The Industrial World

Introduction

Introduction by seriesproducer Deborah Cadbury

Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s colossal ship, the Great Eastern

masterpiece, which would link the ends of theempire.At a time when most ships moored in theThames were built to traditional designs in woodand powered by sail, Brunel’s “Great Ship”, wasalmost 700-feet long, a floating island made of iron,that he envisaged could carry 4,000 passengers inmagnificent style as far as the antipodes withoutneeding to refuel.The design was revolutionarywith a double hull that made it unsinkable andpowered by enormous engines as high as a house.He faced enormous criticism: his ship was too big,it was too expensive, it would sink, or break itsback on the first big wave, if, that is, he couldactually manage to launch it on to the Thames. Infact, it was the blue print for ship design for yearsto come.

In the summer of 1858, while the Great Eastern wasbeing fitted out for her maiden voyage, London wasin the grip of a crisis: “the Great Stink”.Thepopulation had grown rapidly during the first half of the 19th century, yet there had been noprovision for sanitation.Three epidemics of cholera had swept through London leaving over30,000 dead.And sewage was everywhere, piling up in every gully and alleyway, in the cellars ofhouses in poor districts, even seeping throughcracks in floorboards.

Leading engineer Joseph Bazalgette proposed abold scheme to build the London sewers: 82 milesof sewage superhighway linked with over 1,000miles of street sewers to provide an undergroundnetwork beneath the city streets. He drove himselfto the limits of endurance, struggling to realise hissubterranean vision – a task made even moredifficult since he was competing with the newunderground railway, a network of roads andemerging overland railway systems. But his granddesign for a sewer system transformed the city intothe first glittering modern metropolis, setting astandard that was quickly copied the world over.

By the middle of the 19th century, the benefitsbrought by the host of advances of the industrialage were gradually beginning to reach America. Oneof the most spectacular achievements was thedevelopment of railways, notably theTranscontinental Railway, which reached rightacross the continent.With two teams, one buildingfrom the east and the other from California in the

west, they battled against hostile terrain, NativeAmericans, civil war and the Wild West.Yet in 1869,the tracks joined, shrinking the whole continent asthe journey from New York to San Francisco wasreduced from months to days.

That same year, a brilliant engineer, John Roebling,from Germany, won the contract to build thelargest bridge in the world, the Brooklyn Bridge. Itwould stretch 1,600 feet, in one giant leap acrossthe wide and turbulent East River, which separatesNew York from Brooklyn.The foundations wouldreach up to 70 feet below the river.The two mightytowers would dwarf much of New York.At thetime, such a bold design seemed a miracle, and allto be built out of a new material: steel.

Yet John Roebling’s ambitious dream was to costhim the extreme price of life itself and,unknowingly, he condemned his son to a shadowlife. Determined to continue with his father’s vision,Washington Roebling and his team had to face thehorrors of a mysterious new disease,“caissondisease” – now known as the bends – as theylaboured deep beneath the East River. Sufferinggreat pain and paralysis when the great network ofcables was spun across the great East River,


Introduction

Leading engineer Joseph Bazalgette is played by Mark McGann

Washington could only watch through a telescopefrom his window.

With the growth in travel and trade, by the late19th century, shipping was big business. Havingcompleted the Suez Canal in 1869, a Frenchman,Vicomte Ferdinand de Lesseps, dreamed of an evenbolder scheme: the Panama Canal. He would cut apath across the Isthmus of Panama and unite thegreat oceans of the Atlantic and Pacific.The longjourney around Cape Horn would become adanger of the past and the world itself a smallerplace. But once out in the tropical heat of Panama,the French found themselves facing impenetrablejungle, dangerous mudslides and deathly tropicaldiseases as it proved to be an undertaking ofnightmare proportions.The extravagant dreamstole over 25,000 lives and 25 years elapsed beforethe oceans were finally united.

As people found their way across the vastAmerican continent, they were stopped only by apoor or hostile environment, such as the desertregions of Arizona and Nevada. Even here, in theearly 1900s, engineers began to realise it would bepossible to make the desert bloom by building adam across the Colorado River. Sixty stories highand with a larger volume than the Great Pyramid atGiza, the Hoover Dam would break all records.Atthe height of the depression, poverty-strickenworkers earning just a few dollars a day, died fromhorrific explosions, carbon monoxide poisoning andheat exhaustion. It was Chief Engineer FrankCrowe who built it ahead of schedule and underbudget, and notched up one more extraordinarypiece of evidence for the ingenuity of man.

By the time President Roosevelt inaugurated theHoover Dam in 1935, the last “wonder” describedin this series, the world was transformed in almostevery way possible. People’s standard of living hadincreased greatly, the average life expectancy hadalmost doubled in the west and infant mortality had virtually disappeared.The £1 a week thatRobert Stevenson had given his labourers to worka 12-hour day, seven days a week, wet or dry, had,by the time the Hoover Dam was lighting up thewestern deserts, turned into a wage that a workingman, increasingly backed by unions, could live onmore comfortably.

In one sense, the stories present a romantic viewof man – of an individual who struggles to realisehis dream and make a mark on the world.As the19th century progressed, the men of genius tookthe stage in quick succession, each engrossed in hisown creation to the exclusion of all else. Each inturn gave so much of himself, often denyingrelationships, sleep, basic human comforts andultimately, in some cases, their lives.Yet the legacyof their great ambition and talent remains to thisday.With the exception of Brunel’s Great Ship, allthe wonders have survived to the 21st century andare now celebrated as powerful symbols of themodern world.The wealth of inspiration andenergy of the 19th century was the catalyst for thehuge progress that marked the 20th century as thecoming industrial giants stood on the shoulders ofan earlier generation.


Introduction

Programme 1:The Great Ship

In the early 1850s, the world’s most brilliantengineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, dreamed ofcreating the largest ship ever built.The Titanic of itsday at nearly 700 feet, it would be able to sail,without stopping, to Australia and unite the twoends of the empire.

Shipwrights of the day regarded his scheme as uttermadness. But Brunel was a genius who had createdsuch spectacular wonders as the Great WesternRailway, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and even thefirst tunnel under the Thames; there seemed nolimits to his superhuman ability.Yet his “Great Ship”would destroy him, and all who were associatedwith it. Many believed it was cursed.

Brunel enlisted the support of brilliant navalarchitect John Scott Russell and bitter rows soonerupted as Brunel developed a swathe of

innovations with the utter conviction that he wasright.This was the most advanced technology ofthe day with a double hull, 10 water-tight bulkheadsand vast steam engines fashioned by newly inventedhammers of unprecedented scale. However, nothingproceeded as planned; workers were involved intragic accidents, there were fires at Millwall docksand Scott Russell was financially ruined.As thegreat hull finally took shape, plate by plate, the ship,nicknamed “Leviathon”, became the biggest touristattraction in Europe.

Brunel had asked for perfect silence during thelaunch, but 10,000 people gathered in November1857 to see the massive 12,000-ton hull shift intothe water – the greatest weight mankind had everattempted to move.Their efforts were to end intragedy as huge chains snapped and workers wereflung to their deaths. Brunel was ridiculed in thepress as his massive creation would not budge.

His fate became inextricably mixed with that of his“great babe” and, by the time the SS Great Easternwas finally launched, months later, 52-year-oldBrunel had become very ill. Moments afterchoosing his cabin for the maiden voyage, hesuffered a severe stroke.As he lay dying at homeduring the first voyage, he was informed of ahorrific explosion on board which burned aliveseveral of the crew. Devastated, Britain’s greatestengineer succumbed to a second stroke and diedsoon afterwards.

However, his ship was to become one of thecrowning achievements of the Victorian age bycarrying the first transatlantic telegraph cable tolink Europe and America.At first, the proposal tospan the Atlantic with wire was greeted withincredulity. It was soon established that the SSGreat Eastern was the only ship to have a largeenough hold for such a gigantic cargo and 2,000miles of cable was coiled into her tanks.The cablesnapped half way across the Atlantic and monthswere to elapse before the mission was complete.With great excitement in 1866, the first shore-to-shore telegram was tapped through the cable.


Programme synopses

Programme synopses

Isambard Kingdom Brunel is played by Ron Cook

Despite this triumph, the Great Eastern neversucceeded as a passenger ship and, in 1889, after afew years as a show boat, it was finally dismantledfor scrap. In a macabre twist, it was rumoured thattwo skeletons were found entombed between thedouble hull. Many believed that a basher and hismate – a young boy – had been trapped during theconstruction and literally starved to death. Manysaid the Great Ship had, indeed, been jinxed after all.

The Great Ship is written and directed by ChrisSpencer. Isambard Kingdom Brunel is played by Ron Cook.

Programme 2: Brooklyn Bridge

In the mid 19th century, New York was growingfaster than any city in the world.A seeminglyimpossible scheme was devised to unite Manhattanto Brooklyn, spanning the East River, with thelongest suspension bridge ever built.

At 1,600 ft from tower to tower, it would be thelongest suspension bridge ever built and the first tobe made entirely of steel.The two vast gothictowers would have foundations in the East River,larger and to a greater depth than any before.Giant cables lashed between the towers – eachwith a breaking strength exceeding anything yetdesigned – would be held in place by great granite

anchorages of over 60,000 tons.Yet the ambitiousdream of brilliant engineer John Roebling fastturned into a nightmare – a technological feat set against greed, corruption and a doublefamily tragedy.

In July 1869, just a few days after Roebling finallywon approval for his plan, his foot was crushed in afreak accident. He developed lockjaw and died 16days later. Before his death, he entrusted his oldestson,Washington, with the construction of thebridge, urging him to use the new technology ofpneumatic caissons. Unknown to father and son,this would prove to be a death sentence.

Caissons, or gigantic diving bells, had not been usedon such a grand scale in construction before.At170 x 100 ft, they would form the base of eachtower.Working inside them, men toiled away at theriver bed to bury the foundations into the bedrock.Their submerged pressurised airtight chamber wasdescribed by the master mechanic EdmundFarrington as a Dante’s Inferno; intense heat andhumidity, dimly lit by gas lights.And bizarrely, theworkers began to suffer from a mysterious anddebilitating illness – which would later be known asthe bends.

On December 1870, the first disaster struck.A firebroke out and, in the oxygen-charged, compressedair, it quickly got out of control. Roebling himselfspent the entire night fighting the flames – andcollapsed the next morning. Unknown to anyone,he’d been struck by his first case of the bends.Soon workers were dying of the mystery illnessand Roebling himself suffered such a severe attackthat he became semi-paralysed. He could onlycontinue his father’s dream by directing operationsfrom his sick bed.

Barely able to speak or move, the only person hecould rely on was his loyal wife, Emily, who liaisedbetween Washington and his men to continue thework.Washington could only monitor progress,observing the bridge from his bedroom windowthrough a high powered telescope.

Construction continued at breathtaking speed withgreat feats of engineering combined with foolhardystunts.When the first cables connecting the twotowers were swung out across the East River, the


Programme synopses

Washington Roebling is played by George Anton

daring Farrington was the first to “fly” across on aboatswain’s chair, cheered on by crowds of NewYorkers.Yet this success was followed by the mosthorrifying accident to occur during theconstruction of the bridge.While Farrington wassupervising the fixing of the wires to the anchors,one of the super loaded cables snapped andwhipped through a bunch of workers, maiming twoand killing two more.

The entire undertaking was dogged by grosspolitical corruption, with the bridge’s leadinginvestor brought to trial. In a further scandal, it wasdiscovered that substandard wire had been woveninto the fabric of the bridge and the cables had tobe redesigned at a frighteningly late stage.

When the bridge finally opened in 1883, some20,000 New Yorkers crammed onto it – in theensuing crush, 12 people died. For Roebling himself, observing the fireworks from his bedroomwindow, it was a moment of personal triumph. Hisgreat achievement, which had destroyed twogenerations of his family, was to change the NewYork landscape forever.

Brooklyn Bridge is written and directed by PaulWilmshurst. John Roebling is played by StevenBerkoff, Emily Roebling by Debora Weston andWashington Roebling by George Anton.

Programme 3: Bell Rock Lighthouse

The deadly Bell Rock Reef had terrorised seamenfor centuries. Eleven miles out to sea, off the coastof Scotland, this vast, treacherous rock lurkeddeceptively just a few feet below the surface of thewater and stretched over a third of mile.

The scene of countless shipwrecks, such was thefear of the reef that, in storms, sailors would riskthe rough seas rather than face certain deathapproaching the Firth of Forth. In one wild night inDecember 1799, such a violent hurricane ragedthat 70 ships went down.

Yet one young engineer, Robert Stevenson,dreamed of building the impossible – a lighthouseon Bell Rock Reef. His rivals ridiculed his planwhich required building on a rock that was almost

constantly submerged, set 11 miles off-shore, inperpetually hazardous seas. Nothing like this hadbeen attempted before.As they predicted, whenStevenson set off with a crew to check out hisideas, the waves and tides were so treacherousaround the reef that they could not even reccy thesite.Taming the seas would prove to be anextraordinary battle against the elements that wasto cost both reputations and lives.

Stevenson, a lighting engineer who had worked withhis father to light up Edinburgh, was certain hecould win – but no one believed him.This is hisstory, set against the Westminster establishment,distinguished engineers, ever-greedy financiers –and, above all, the elements. During the NapoleonicWars, as his plans were still thwarted, navy shipscontinued to go down with countless lives lost.Theworst disaster was in 1803 when HMS York wasshipwrecked on the reef with the loss of nearly 500lives and 60 guns – yet still no one would listen tothe lighting engineer.

Stevenson never lost faith in his plan, and afteryears of campaigning and researching lighthousedesign – not to mention an Act of Parliament – in1807, he finally won the backing he needed. Out atsea, he pushed his workers to the limit to createthe impossible.They lived and worked mooredabove the dangerous reef for months on end. Menand children died as they were washed out to sea,


Programme synopses

Robert Stevenson is played by Robert Cavanah

working against waves, storms and sea fogs. In onehorrific incident, as their boats lost anchor anddrifted out to sea against a fast-rising tide, thewhole crew nearly drowned. Even as the lighthousebegan to take shape, waves 60 feet high crashingagainst the walls could wash workers out to thesea to their deaths. Stevenson would not bedeflected from his course, even when his ownchildren had died back home.

Yet this was to be Stevenson’s triumph. By February1811, the lighthouse was built. In an historicmoment, the first keeper, John Reid, lit the lampswhich beamed out over the cold grey northernseas – lights which still shine to this day.

Bell Rock Lighthouse is directed by Chris Spencer.Robert Stevenson is played by Robert Cavanah.

Programme 4:Transcontinental Railway

The eastern United States was crowded withimmigrants while the west held the tantalisingpromise of vast riches and gold. Between the twolay a harsh wilderness, Indians and months of wagontravel that few survived.A railway was needed.

In 1862, President Lincoln signed the PacificRailroad Act authorising the construction of 1,800miles of track.Two corporate giants were pitchedagainst each other in a race to join the east andwest coasts of America – “to shrink the continentand change the whole world”.The Union PacificCompany was led by the corrupt Dr ThomasDurant who was intent on bleeding the railroaddry.The Central Pacific was funded by the “BigFour” Sacramento shop keepers: Crocker, Stanford,Huntington and Leland.

Competition between the two companies wasruthless and uncompromising but an even bloodierbattle was fought on the ground.The surveyors whoplanned the route struggled through wilderness,living off buffalo, elk and antelope. Behind themfollowed the two workforces of labourers – eachthe size of Civil War armies. Indian attacks, brutalweather, floods, food shortages and even a warstood between them and success.

Both companies got off to a slow start.At theUnion Pacific, Dr Thomas Durant, a publicity-seeking showman, after spending $500,000, hadonly advanced a pitiful 40 miles.The Big Four at theCentral Pacific hired slave driver HarveyStrobridge, but even he was defeated by theseemingly impassable solid granite ridges of theSierra Nevada.A railroad at such high altitudes hadnever before been contemplated.

While the Central Pacific team was battling withthe Sierras, Durant faced another problem in thedesolate wilderness of prairies. Native Indianswaged guerrilla warfare, desperate to halt progressat any cost.At the bloodthirsty massacre of PlumCreek, Nebraska, they derailed the train and burntthe tracks.The workers who weren’t scalped andmutilated, were thrown onto the flames. Oneworker,Thompson, who miraculously survived, lefta horrific account of being scalped alive.

Durant hired the toughest men he could find butthis soon made matters worse. In Cheyenne,


Programme synopses

Dr Thomas Durant is played by Robert Young

Wyoming, murders among the workers – in the“hell on wheels” shanty towns that sprang up atthe end of the line – outnumbered accidentaldeaths. Durant’s henchmen, the Casement brothers,two legendary, gun-swinging cowboys, weren’t afraidto restore order by literally shooting the workers.His railway gave birth to the Wild West.

Meanwhile, Strobridge’s men at the Central Pacificwere still struggling to bore the Summit Tunnel. Butconditions rapidly deteriorated into one of theworst winters in history, with 44 blizzards. Reducedto emergency food rations, men were trapped astemperatures plummeted to minus 20 degrees andsurvivors lived in terror of the frequent avalancheswhich buried entire camps.To speed up progress, achemist was hired to experiment with nitro-glycerine – an explosive which was five times morepowerful and 13 times more destructive than theexisting “black powder”.Although tunnelling wasfaster, accidents were so horrific that themanagement was forced to abandon its tests.

Far removed, in the city boardrooms, the leadingrailway engineers and businessmen battled forsupremacy – marshalling unprecedented resourcesand encouraging speed over caution in the fight forfunds. Locomotives, rails and spikes were hauledthrough America and dragged across the plains.

Yet this was a race that both sides won.As bothrailways converged on Promontory in Utah, theywere so hell-bent on clocking up the mileage thatthey overlapped by 100 miles, until forced by theGovernment to link up.

On 10 May 1869, 1,800 miles and 21 millionhammer blows later, the tracks from east and westwere about to be joined. Ironically, Durant waskidnapped on his way to the celebration by rebelworkers who hadn’t been paid.When the final spike, made in gold, was driven in atPromontory Summit, it held the attention of anation: nothing like this had been seen before.Asfor the railway pioneers themselves: Dr Durantbecame very rich – too rich – until an investigationrevealed corruption and fraud.The Big Four kepttheir fortunes – Crocker alone was worth $40m.And the railway became the catalyst for the vastexpansion that was to make America the industrialgiant of the world.

Transcontinental Railway is written and directed byPaul Bryers. Dr Thomas Durant is played by Marcus D’Amico.

Programme 5: London Sewers

In the hot summer of 1858, a window was openedin the Houses of Parliament and Britain’s greatgovernment suddenly ground to a halt. Disraeli andother leading MPs fled from their chambers,overwhelmed by the fearsome stench of decayingsewerage. Fleeing the “Great Stink” for the country,MPs realised that they had to deal with the horrorand filth of London’s sanitation which had beenliterally building up on their doorstep for centuries.

Despite London’s rapid expansion, little hadchanged since the “pissing alleys” of Tudor times.The poor were worst affected as sewage seepedthrough the floors of their homes or ran down thewalls. Some even scrounged a hopeless living fromsewage: the desperate “toshers” and “mudlarks” –as they were known – who sieved through refusesearching for bits of old tin or oyster shells.

Worst of all, although no one yet knew how orwhy, killer diseases like cholera swept through thecity in a series of epidemics – killing more than30,000 by the mid 19th century in London alone.

Utterly at a loss, the medical profession added tothe problem by supporting the idea that diseasespreads through smell.This prompted the reformer,Edwin Chadwick, to call for cesspools to bedrained away from houses and into the Thames.


Programme synopses

Unwittingly, he poisoned the city’s drinking waterand sealed the fate of thousands.

Slowly, clues to the cause of cholera were beingpieced together in a small surgery in Soho. JohnSnow was the first to crack the causes of cholera –but nobody believed him. It was to take two moredevastating epidemics before the medicalestablishment was even prepared to test his theory.

This scientific detective story entwines with an epictale of Victorian construction.As the grotesquesmell from the Thames brought London to crisispoint, the level-headed Joseph Bazalgette proposedan impossibly ambitious scheme: 318 million brickswould link over 1,000 miles of street sewers with82 miles of sewerage super-highway.

His vision required extraordinary and novelengineering solutions to set the bricks intowatertight tunnels and create vast steam pumpingengines, installed in gothic cathedrals ofengineering, designed to raise the sewage up tosurface levels before it could run under gravity intothe sea. London had to be redesigned toaccommodate the vast scale of his plan. In 1865,with the first phase of the sewers completed,Bazalgette celebrated with the Prince of Wales in abarge trip down the Thames as Londoners cheered.

Their success was short-lived for cholera was tostrike a further deadly blow. On 27 June 1866, alabourer and his wife contracted the disease andsoon died. Investigators found their sewage hadinfected the East London Water Company andunleashed an epidemic that would kill thousandsmore.After an embarrassing cover-up, it was foundthat the Water Company was at fault, and notBazalgette’s magnificent system.

This was the last time cholera ever swept thoughLondon but, more importantly, this final epidemicprovided the proof that the medical establishmentneeded to accept John Snow’s theory.With choleranow conquered and a sewage system fit for amodern metropolis, Bazalgette was deemed to havesaved more lives than any other Victorian official.

London Sewers is directed by Ed Bazalgette.Joseph Bazalgette is played by Mark McGann.

Programme 6:The Panama Canal

When French engineer Ferdinand de Lessepsreturned triumphantly to Paris after completing theSuez Canal in 1869, he was hailed as a national hero.Thousands raced to invest in his next, even bolderscheme – to build a great canal across Panama.

His dream would cut a swathe across the SouthAmerican continent and unite the vast oceans ofthe Atlantic and Pacific. Fortunes seemed assured asshipping would no longer have to face the terrorsof Cape Horn to sail from one side of America to another.

In 1879, the Paris Geographical Society set up acommittee to investigate how best to turn the planinto reality. De Lesseps favoured a sea-level canalwhich would slice through the mountains to unitethe oceans. In a furious debate, his rival, Baron deLepinay, claimed this was impossible and proposed a gigantic lake and lock canal system. Ignorant ofthe dangers, the committee backed the eminent de Lesseps.

On 1 January 1880, de Lesseps set out confidentlyto Panama with his daughter to dig the first spadeof earth at the mouth of the Rio Grande. But timesand tides conspired against them and they failedeven to find the correct site – an omen of whatwas to come.


Programme synopses

As a symbol of French national pride, thousandstrekked to Panama to find themselves facingimpenetrable jungle, deep swamps, poisonoussnakes, torrential rains and deadly mudslides. DeLesseps put his son, Charles, in charge of dailyoperations but they were soon to face two moreformidable enemies – malaria and yellow fever. Menliterally walked off ships to their deaths andthousands succumbed to the horrific conditions of“fever coast”. Nuns unwittingly made things worseby providing breeding sites for mosquitoes in thegardens of their hospital.

With 20,000 dead by the late 1880s, the “PanamaAffair” was rocked by financial scandal and broughtdown the French government. Shares collapsed,investors lost their money and Ferdinand andCharles de Lesseps were both tried for bribery.The dream of the Panama Canal evaporated.Ruined and disgraced, Ferdinand died, shamed and quite insane, in 1894.

Four years later, as America headed to war withSpain, its Navy’s first and only real battleship, USOregon, took 67 days to get from San Francisco viaCape Horn to the Caribbean. By the time it finallyreached its destination, the war was practicallyover. Roosevelt needed little convincing.The idea ofthe Panama Canal was reborn.Roosevelt pioneered a new plan and forced thecountries of South America to agree terms after astand-off with a fleet of warships. He personallyappointed experienced engineer John Stevens todirect the scheme. Stevens saw it as certain death –every killer disease known to man was endemic inthe region – but against his better judgement heagreed to the President’s wish.His first step was toclear the area of malaria and yellow fever. Scientistshad finally established that these diseases werecarried by mosquito.Through his Chief MedicalOfficer,William Gorgas, Stevens launched one ofthe largest all-out assaults on nature – fumigatinghouses, draining pools and digging ditches – until, by1905, he’d completely eliminated yellow fever.

In an historic U-turn, Stevens also reverted to theoriginal scheme proposed by de Lepinay of using agigantic lake and locks system. His plan would seethe creation of the largest artificial lake in theworld, the first constructional use of a relativelynew material called concrete and the excavation of

the impassable Culebra Cut, or Hell’s Gorge – as itbecame known. But just when it seemed he mightwin, he suddenly resigned and the military had totake over.

By 1914, the canal was finally opened – the greatest engineering feat the world had seen.Andin France, De Lesseps’ son, Charles, at last saw hisfather’s name restored to honour and his ownreputation cleared.

The Panama Canal is directed by Phil Smith.Ferdinand de Lesseps is played by John Walters.

Programme 7:The Hoover Dam

With its impassable canyons, dangerous rapids andsevere seasonal variations that could reduce thewestern states of the USA to a desert, theColorado was one of the most dangerous andunpredictable rivers in the world. But in 1902,engineer Arthur Powell-Davis dreamed of creatingthe largest dam ever and taming the wild river.


Programme synopses

The scale of his ambition was matched only by thescale of his plan.At 727 feet, the dam would stand60 stories high and would have a larger volumethan the Great Pyramid at Giza.With electricityand irrigation, the deserts of the west would bloomand the face of America would change forever.

His dreams turned to nightmares as 20 yearspassed in legal wrangling and funding disputes andhe left the project a bitter man. It took thedesperate conditions of the Great Depression torevitalise the scheme, which became a symbol ofhope for thousands.

Several engineers bid for the project but one manstood out: the ruthless and dedicated Frank Crowe.He had his choice from thousands of poverty-stricken workers, queuing up to labour in deserttemperatures of more than 120 degrees for a few dollars.

Many lives were lost as the entire Colorado Riverhad to be diverted to make way for construction.The workers built four mammoth tunnels throughnearly a mile of rock, using innovative contraptionscalled drilling jumbos.These trucks, stacked tall withtiers of 24-30 drills, would back up against the rockface to bore holes for the explosive. Carbonmonoxide poisoning and injuries from cave-inswere common as men struggled deep undergroundwith power tools and dynamite.

Safety was sacrificed for speed.To his workers,Frank was both God and the Devil; they nick-namedhim “Hurry Up Crowe”. But by 14 November 1932– 11 months ahead of schedule – they were finallyready to re-route the raging Colorado.

Work then began on the dam itself.At its base, someof the poorest workers removed over half a millioncubic yards of mud before reaching the bedrockfoundation – many dying of heat exhaustion.

Most dangerous of all, in spectacular stunts, the“high-scalers” had to swing right out over the sidesof the Grand Canyon to blast the canyon walls inorder to create a smooth surface for the concrete.In one daring feat of heroism, it is said that OliverCowan managed to swing out to catch hold of afalling man, while himself dangling at a precipitousheight.The rock face was a maze of live air hoses,

electrical lines and other climbers, and fallingobjects were the most frequent cause of death.Themen soon improvised the first use of hard hats bycoating cloth hats with coal tar.

By June of 1933, Crowe was ready to pour theconcrete.The men constructed the base, column bycolumn; if the concrete had all been poured atonce, the heat it generated would take 125 years tocool down. Crowe chose an unusually dry mixwhich, although stronger, gave the men little timebefore it started to harden.To combat this, hepioneered a new complex series of cranes, cablesand buckets to guarantee speedy delivery.

For the next two years, workers poured concreteround the clock – 24 hours a day, seven days aweek. Six billion kilograms later, the dam wasfinished. On 1 February 1935, the diversion tunnelswere blocked.The Colorado resumed her naturalcourse and the dam went into operation.

Frank Crowe, decked in glory, walked away with a$350,000 bonus. His great triumph had come at acost.Throughout the four gruelling years, over ahundred lives had been lost. In a curious twist,shortly after Roosevelt’s inaugural speech, a mancalled Patrick Tierney fell to his death. He was thelast to die on the project and his father, 13 yearsearlier, had been the first.

Hoover Dam is written and directed by MarkEverest. Frank Crowe is played by Jaudon Benedict.


Programme synopses

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Considered to be Britain’s greatest engineer,Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born in 1806 to anEnglish mother and a French father. His father, MarcBrunel, himself a celebrated engineer, moved toEngland at the time of the French Revolution.After aformal education in both France and Britain, Brunelwent on to work for his father on the building ofthe Thames Tunnel.Within four years, and still onlyaged 20, he was appointed principal engineer of theproject. In 1833, Brunel was appointed chief engineerto the new Great Western Railway companyworking on the line that linked London to Bristol.His work on railways saw him engineer over 1,200miles of railway with lines constructed across theglobe, in Ireland, Italy and Bengal.

Whilst with the Great Western Railway company,Brunel also began his work on ship building,persuading the company to build a steam boat fortravel from Bristol to New York.The GreatWestern was launched in 1838 and was the largeststeam ship of its day, over 236 feet in length. Fromhere, Brunel went on to build the Great Britain andfinally the Great Eastern, which was designed tocarry over 4,000 passengers.

He was married in 1836 to Mary Horsley. Bruneldied in 1859, aged 54, having been taken ill whilepreparing for the maiden voyage of the GreatEastern in 1858.

John Roebling

Born in 1806 in Muhlhausen,Thuringia, Prussia(now Germany), John Roebling was educated in thepublic schools of Muhlhausen before attending theRoyal Polytechnic School in Berlin. Graduating in1826 with a degree in civil engineering, Roeblingwas obliged to spend three years in service to theState, working on road-building projects.

He emigrated to America in 1831 along with hisbrother.They settled in Pennsylvania where they

sought to establish a farming community.When thefarming venture failed, Roebling resumed hisengineering work, taking on canal and railway buildingprojects. In 1841, Roebling invented twisted wirerope cable which preceded the use of wire ropesupports in the construction of suspension bridges.

He constructed his first suspension bridge in 1845and went on to build numerous others, the mostfamous being the Brooklyn Bridge. He died in 1869after a freak accident – whilst surveying the site forthe Brooklyn Bridge his foot was crushed and helater succumbed to lockjaw. His son,Washington,oversaw the continuing work on the BrooklynBridge which was completed in 1883.

Robert Stevenson

Robert Stevenson was born in Glasgow in 1772, toAlan Stevenson and Jean Lillie.After the death ofhis father in 1794, his mother subsequentlyremarried Thomas Smith, whom she met throughher church activities.

Stevenson began his work on lighthouses whilst inthe employ of his stepfather, assisting in thesupervision of lighthouses around the Scottishcoast.After working hard to qualify as a civilengineer, Robert built up the family business oflighthouse construction and civil engineering, withhis greatest achievement being the building of theBell Rock Lighthouse.

Stevenson married Jean Smith (the daughter of hisstepfather by an earlier marriage) and had a largefamily. Continuing the family tradition, three of hissons followed him into the lighthouse-buildingbusiness, with his eldest son,Alan, becomingengineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board.

Stevenson died in 1850.


Biographies –the pioneers

The pioneers

Dr Thomas C Durant

Born in 1820,Thomas C Durant made his namebuilding railroads, notably the Mississippi andMissouri railroad across Iowa. He came to theUnion Pacific Railroad as Vice President andGeneral Manager and set about establishingsupport and financing for its construction.Asuccessful and driven man, Durant also used hisposition to further his own gains and was oftenaccused of bribery and corruption.

Durant died in 1885.

Joseph Bazalgette

Joseph Bazalgette was born in Enfield in 1819. Hebegan his career working on railway projects andwas later appointed Chief Engineer of theMetropolitan Board of works in 1855, havingpreviously been employed by the MetropolitanCommission of Sewers.

His greatest achievement was the building of theLondon Sewers network, which began after the“Great Stink” of 1858.Taking eight years to build,between 1859 and 1865, Bazalgette oversaw theconstruction of 82 miles of sewage super highway, which were linked to a thousand miles of street sewers.

He was also responsible for the building of theThames Embankments, and Battersea,Hammersmith and Putney Bridges, doing perhapsmore than anyone of the time to transform Londoninto a modern city.

Bazalgette died in 1901.

Ferdinand de Lesseps

Hailing from a family of distinguished Frenchdiplomats, Ferdinand de Lesseps was born in 1805in Versailles.After studying law, he went to workwith his uncle, then the French ambassador toLisbon. He later served with his father in Tunis and,after his father’s death, he spent time in Egypt,Rotterdam, Malaga, Barcelona and Madrid.

Having befriended the new Viceroy of Egypt,Mohammed Said, many years before, de Lessepswas given the job of overseeing the construction of the Suez Canal.When the canal opened in 1869, he was hailed as a hero, both in Egypt and France.

Several years later, he expressed his desire to buildan inter-oceanic canal. 1 January 1880 saw de Lesseps and his young daughter dig the firstspade of earth in the construction of the PanamaCanal.The venture suffered numerous setbacks inthe shape of weather, disease and financialmismanagement, leading to its failure in 1889. DeLesseps died five years later in France, having fallenfrom his celebrated position.

Arthur Powell-Davis

Born in 1861, in Decatur, Illinois,Arthur PowellDavis earned a Bachelor of Science degree in CivilEngineering from Columbian (now GeorgeWashington) University in 1888. Davis gained workas a topographer for US Geographical Surveythrough the help of his uncle, John Wesley Powell,who was its director and who conquered andexplored the Colorado River.

Davis progressed through the Government ranksand, in 1906, became Chief Engineer of theReclamation Service, a position he held until hisappointment to Director on December 1914.During his tenure as Director, Reclamation outlinedthe development of the Colorado River basinbefore Congress in 1922. Davis was the first torecommend construction of multipurpose dams.

He died in Oakland, California, in 1933, before theHoover Dam came into operation.


Biographies –the pioneers

Ron Cook plays Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Ron Cook has starred in numerous productions onboth stage and screen.

His film credits include appearances in Chocolat,alongside Dame Judi Dench and Johnny Depp;Mike Leigh’s Topsy Turvy and Secrets And Lies; and inPeter Greenaway’s The Cook,The Thief, His Wife AndHer Lover.

His theatre work includes productions at the RoyalCourt, the National Theatre and the RoyalShakespeare Company, whilst his television rolesinclude appearances in Dennis Potter’s The SingingDetective, Tom Jones and Black Adder, all for the BBC.

Steven Berkoff plays John Roebling

Steven Berkoff is known not only as an actor butalso as a director, playwright and author.

After studying drama in London and Paris, he madehis London stage debut in 1959 in a production ofArthur Miller’s A View From A Bridge. He later wenton to establish the London Theatre Group in 1968.

His numerous film credits include Stanley Kubrick’sA Clockwork Orange, Octopussy, Beverly Hills Cop andRambo II. He has also published a variety of booksincluding: Gross Intrusion and Graft:Tales of An Actor,both collections of short stories; I Am Hamlet; andhis autobiography, Free Association.

Robert Cavanah plays Robert Stevenson

Scottish actor Robert Cavanah has starred innumerous television productions with appearancesin Silent Witness, Murder In Mind and The Bill. He isperhaps best known for his portrayal of Heathcliffin a television production of Wuthering Heights,where he played opposite Orla Brady.

His theatre work includes playing Mark Anthony inShakespeare’s Julius Caesar at London’s Young Vic.

Mark McGann plays Joseph Bazalgette

Born in Liverpool, Mark’s resemblance to JohnLennon saw him play the former Beatle on stage inthe musical Lennon and then on screen in the filmJohn And Yoko:A Love Story. His other film creditsinclude a role in Let Him Have It, alongsideChristopher Eccleston.

Also interested in music, Mark formed a band alongwith his brothers, Joe and Stephen, called TheMcGanns, releasing an album in 1999.


Biographies –the actors

The actors

Jill Fullerton SmithExecutive Producer

Jill Fullerton Smith has been making documentariesfor 20 years and is now a BBC executive producer.

Amongst many highlights in her career before shejoined the BBC, Jill Fullerton Smith was speciallyselected by Steven Spielberg’s producers, FrankMarshall and Kathleen Kennedy, to work with themdirecting documentaries over a period of threeyears. Her work included Alive – Twenty Years On,which won an Emmy and held the record for twoyears as the highest-selling, non-fiction home videoin America.

Jill Fullerton Smith has been responsible for a widevariety of programming. She is particularlyinterested in using special effects and graphics tobring stories to life and has found cutting-edge, newtechniques to do this. Many of her films have wonawards for graphic design. She has also won a largenumber of other awards and nominations as aproducer/director, including BAFTA, Emmy, RTS and Glaxo.

Deborah CadburySeries Producer

Deborah Cadbury is an award-winning writer anddocumentary film maker.

Working as a BBC documentary maker for 20years, Deborah Cadbury has specialised in strong,journalistic programmes. For Horizon she has beenawarded 15 international awards, including anEmmy. Her programme, Assault On The Male,launched a world-wide scientific research campaigninto the hormone-mimicking chemicals that areharming human health.

She has now published four books. The DinosaurHunters recreates the remarkable story of thebitter rivalry between the early fossil hunters who pieced together the extraordinary evidence of a prehistoric world.“A wonderful writer,” saysThe Times, “who keeps you turning the pages as ifher book was a thriller.” The Dinosaur Hunters hasbeen turned into a TV drama series. DeborahCadbury’s most recent book, The Lost King OfFrance, tells the tragic story of Marie Antoinette’sfavourite son.According to historian Alison Weir, itis: “ … absolutely stupendous.This is history as itshould be. It is stunningly written. I could not put itdown.” This is now under development as a film byLynda La Plante. Deborah’s book to accompany the series, Seven Wonders Of The Industrial Worldpublishes in September.


Biographies –the production team

The production team


Discover more about the seven industrial wondersand the driving passions behind the people whomade them by visiting the multi award-winningBBCi History website.

Visitors to the site can find out more by looking atoriginal articles by leading experts; playing gamesand animations that bring the industrial world tolife; and checking out the message boarddiscussions.The site also features biographies of thekey players and other related website links.There isalso an opportunity to win the book thataccompanies the series.

BBC Learning

To celebrate Britain’s industrial heritage, BBCLearning is co-ordinating events across the country,in association with the Open University, to enablepeople to find out more about the IndustrialRevolution.Visitors can choose from a host ofactivities, including workshops, lectures, canal walksand drama presentations. Events and over 40industrial heritage sites are listed on the campaignposter and on the website atwww.bbc.co.uk/history

Accompanying book

A book to accompany the series will be publishedby Fourth Estate in September. Seven Wonders OfThe Industrial World is Deborah Cadbury’s fourthbook. She is the author of The Feminization OfNature, The Dinosaur Hunters and The Lost King OfFrance. She has won numerous international awardsas a TV producer for the BBC, including an Emmyfor Horizon. She is also the series producer forSeven Wonders Of The Industrial World.


Where to find out more

Where to find out more

Documents

7 WONDERS PACK - BBC