William Tierney Clark | |
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Born | 23 August 1783Nationality English |
Died | 22 September 1852 London |
(aged 69)
William Tierney Clark FRS FRAS (23 August 1783 – 22 September 1852) was an English civil engineer particularly associated with the design and construction of bridges. He was among the earliest designers of suspension bridges.
Born in Bristol, he was initially apprenticed to a local millwright and – guided by noted engineers Thomas Telford and John Rennie – he progressed to practice as a consulting civil engineer, moving to London where, from 1811, he was also engineer to the West Middlesex Waterworks Company (the engine house and other buildings involved in a scheme to pump water from reservoirs at Barnes to Hammersmith and other parts of London were designed by him).
He designed the first suspension bridge to span the River Thames in London: Hammersmith Bridge, opened in 1827. He also designed the Marlow Bridge, a suspension bridge across the Thames in Marlow, Buckinghamshire (built 1829–32) and Norfolk Bridge, a suspension bridge over the River Adur in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex (designed with Captain Samuel Brown, opened in 1834, replaced in 1923).