Isambard is special because he was prolific, had an impressive name and that one particularly photogenic moment. I like to think of him as a sort of everyman fo

Isambard is special because he was prolific, had an impressive name and that one particularly photogenic moment. I like to think of him as a sort of everyman for engineers. So much of a society is designed by engineers - all the important parts really - it seems probable that there are a lot of amazing people who the history books just don't record. The list of great engineering names is short vs. the list of great engineering marvels. Similarly to how is is easy enough to find histories of people who caused massive great wars (Alexander the so-called Great springs to mind) but histories of places that had centuries of prosperity tend to not penetrate the public consciousness. It is all too complex and there are usually greasy capitalists involved instead of respectable axe-murdering generals. Anyway, thanks Isambard for representing something important in the history books.