The Engineer Who Lost and Won Everything
Rea,
You know how special this moment is, right? Here you are in Bristol during your first week of nomadic homeschooling, experiencing something most kids never get to do. When I was about 13, I traveled to Malaysia and Singapore, but I don’t think I was as organized or prepared as you are. You’re going to have a fuller experience from this adventure, and years from now, this will be one of those seminal moments you look back on with pride.
Since you want to be an engineer, let me tell you about someone who shaped this very city you’re exploring. His name was Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and in 1829, he came to Bristol with big dreams.
Brunel entered a competition to design a bridge across the Avon Gorge - what would become the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge. He was just 24 years old, brilliant, and confident. But he lost. The judges chose someone else’s design, calling his too ambitious and risky.
Most people would have packed up and left Bristol feeling defeated. Instead, Brunel decided to stay and really get to know the city. He started seeing opportunities everywhere - problems that needed an engineer’s solution.
The city needed better transportation to London, so he designed the Great Western Railway, creating the fastest route between the two cities. The journey that once took days by horse-drawn coach now took just four hours by train.
Bristol’s harbor was silting up, threatening the city’s maritime trade. Brunel designed the SS Great Britain, the world’s first iron-hulled, propeller-driven steamship. At 322 feet long, it was the largest ship ever built at the time. You can still visit it in Bristol Harbor today.
And that bridge competition he lost? Twenty years later, they came back to him. The original winning design had proven impossible to build. In 1864, five years after Brunel’s death, they finally built his Clifton Suspension Bridge using his original plans. It spans 702 feet across the gorge and still carries traffic today.
Walk around Bristol now and you’ll see Brunel’s name everywhere - from shopping centers to restaurants like Brunel Raj. The Great Western Railway he designed still connects Bristol to London. His engineering didn’t just solve problems; it transformed how an entire city connected to the world.
Brunel understood something important about engineering: it’s not just about building things, it’s about improving how people live. Every bridge connects communities. Every railway opens new possibilities. Every ship expands horizons.
That’s the kind of engineer you could become - someone who sees setbacks as setup for something bigger, who looks at challenges and imagines solutions that last for centuries.
Love, Abba
