Keys to History

The engineer-in-chief of the Victoria Bridge was Robert Stephenson (1803-1859), who also designed the bridge in conjunction with the resident engineer, Alexander Ross.

(...) The Victoria Bridge project needed the illustrious name of Stephenson, internationally known for his bridges and other railway works in Britain and on the continent, to attract reluctant British investors. In choosing a career as civil engineer he was following in the footsteps of his father George Stephenson (1781-1848), the railway builder and inventor of the "Rocket," the world's first commercially used railway steam locomotive.
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The invention of the tubular bridge system was also the work of Stephenson. He designed the world's first two tubular bridges, the Britannia and the Conway, for the Chester and Holyhead Railway.