Robert Howlett Robert Howlett Robert Howlett (born 3 July 1831 in Theberton, Suffolk, and died at 10 Bedford Place, Campden Hill, Kensington, London on 2 December 1858), was a pioneering British photographer whose pictures are widely exhibited in major galleries. Howlett produced portraits of Crimean War heroes, genre scenes and landscapes. His photographs include the iconic picture of Isambard Kingdom Brunel which was part of a commission by the "Illustrated Times" ) to document the construction of the world's largest steamship, the SS "Great Eastern". He exhibited at the London Photographic Society and published "“On the Various Methods of Printing Photographic Pictures
Isambard Kingdom Brunel were many valleys to cross, Brunel made extensive use of wood for the construction of substantial viaducts; these have had to be replaced over the years as their primary material, Kyanised Baltic Pine, became uneconomical to obtain. Brunel designed the Royal Albert Bridge in 1855 for the Cornwall Railway, after Parliament rejected his original plan for a train ferry across the Hamoaze—the estuary of the tidal Tamar, Tavy and Lynher. The bridge (of "bowstring girder" or "tied arch" construction) consists of two main spans of , above mean high spring tide, plus 17 much shorter approach spans. Opened by Prince