Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford, a shepherd's son from Dumfriesshire, was apprenticed to a stonemason at 14 and worked as a mason in Edinburgh and London before becoming a surveyor and engineer. His understanding of stone shows in the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and the Menai Suspension Bridge, as well as hundreds of miles of roads and canals. He became the first president of the Institution of Civil Engineers.