Home > William Tierney Clark

Born in Bristol, he was initially apprenticed to a local millwright and – guided by noted engineers Thomas Telford and John Rennie - he progressed to practice as a consulting civil engineer, moving to London where, from 1811, he was also engineer to the West Middlesex Waterworks Company (the engine house and other buildings involved in a scheme to pump water from reservoirs at Barnes to HammersmithHammersmith is a town in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is situated to the south of Shepherd's Bush, on the north side of the River Thames over which picturesque Hammersmith Bridge carries traffic to and from Barnes. The a and other parts of London were designed by him).

He designed the first suspension bridge to span the River ThamesSeveral places exist with the name Thames and the word is also used as part of several brand and company names Most famous is the River Thames in England, on which the city of London stands Other Thames Rivers There is a Thames River in Canada There is a in London: Hammersmith BridgeHammersmith Bridge is a crossing of the River Thames in west London, and lies just south of the Hammersmith town centre area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham on the north side of the river. It allows road traffic and pedestrians to cross to, opened in 1827Events February 20 Battle of Huzaingo February 28 The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad offering commercial transportation of both people and freight. March 7 Ellen Turner is abducted The Shrigley Abduction case begins. He also designed the Marlow BridgeMarlow Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames between the town of Marlow in the English county of Buckinghamshire and the village of Bisham in the county of Berkshire. There has been a bridge on the site since the reign of King Edw, a suspension bridge across the Thames in MarlowMarlow (previously Great Marlow or Chipping Marlow is a town on the very southern tip of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the River Thames, four miles south of High Wycombe, and four miles north west of Maidenhead. The town name is Anglo Saxon i, BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire (abbreviated Bucks is a county in south central England. The county town is Aylesbury. Buckinghamshire is divided into four districts: Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe. The ceremonial county (which is based on the post- 19 (built 1829Events January 8 Hanging of body-selling murderer William Burke his associate William Hare, who testified against him, is released January 19 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust premieres March 4 Andrew Jackson succeeds John Quincy Adams as the President o- 1932) and Norfolk Bridge, a suspension bridge over the River Adur in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex ( 1834, replaced in 1923).

Internationally, he is revered for his design of the Széchenyi Chain Bridge across the Danube in Budapest, Hungary. The first bridge linking Buda and Pest, it was designed by Tierney Clark in 1839, with construction supervised locally by Scotsman Adam Clark (no relation). It opened in 1849.

Tierney Clark is also credited with the design of a tunnel between Higham and Frindsbury, near Rochester in north Kent for the Thames and Medway canal. The canal was not a success but the tunnel was subsequently adapted for use by the Gravesend and Rochester Railway.

He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Tierney Clark lived and died in Hammersmith in west London. His memorial in the local parish church, St Paul’s, shows an outline of his design for the nearby bridge – since replaced by a design by Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Further afield, there is a street in Buda named after him and he is commemorated by an annual award made by the Association of Hungarian Consulting Engineers and Architects: the Tierney Clark Award for Civil Engineering.