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 fifty-two years earlier by Tom Rolt in his 1959 book "Brunel." Re-engineering of suspension chains recovered from an earlier suspension bridge was one of many reasons given why Brunel's design could not be followed exactly. Hungerford Bridge, a suspension footbridge across the Thames near Charing Cross Station in London, was opened in May 1845. Its central span was , and its cost was £106,000. It was replaced by a new railway bridge in 1859, and the suspension chains were used to complete the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The Clifton Suspension Bridge still stands, and over 4 million vehicles traverse it every