1847 A trussed iron-
1848 The first of the Conway bridge tubes was floated into position. Robert was responsible for the design and all arrangements connected to its erection. The tube was raised to its final position on 16th April. Two days later Robert drove the first locomotive through the tube. He gave evidence to the AIRS Commission and maintained faith in tubular girder wrought iron structures. On the 12th August George Stephenson died at his home, Tapton House, Derbyshire. Robert was chief mourner at George’s funeral on the 17th .
1849 Robert was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. On the 20th June the Britannia Bridge’s first tube was floated into position. Nearly a year later Robert drove the last rivet into the girder and also the first train over the strait. On the 28th September Newcastle’s High Level Bridge was officially opened by Queen Victoria.
1850 A dinner was held on the Newcastle Central Station platform to celebrate the creation of a continuous line of railway from Euston to Berwick. Robert had a yacht ‘Titania’ built and became a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. In July he accepted a challenge from Commodore Stevens to race 'Titania’ against his 'America'. Thus was born the America's Cup race. On the 29th August: Queen Victoria opened the Royal Border Bridge at Berwick. Robert declined a knighthood. He travelled to Switzerland and gave advice about a railway network. He sailed to Egypt in 'Titania' and whilst he was there the Pasha sought his advice on railways.
1851 Robert became Engineer-
1853 Robert submitted designs for a tubular girder bridge to span the St. Lawrence at Montreal. When built it became the world’s longest bridge.
1854 Robert was nominated by Faraday and became a member of the Royal Institution.
He spent a month in the north-
1855 Robert was made a ‘Chevalier de Legion d’Honneur’ by Napoleon III.
1856 Robert was elected President of the Institution of Civil Engineers for a two-
1857 His godson, Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell (later Lord Baden-
1858 Robert visited Sunderland to see his reconstruction of Paine’s bridge over the Wear. He remarked: ‘there are no members of society for whom I have a higher respect than for industrious and intelligent workmen. It is to them that the engineer is indebted for the full and efficient realisation of his conceptions’. In October he sailed to Egypt and took what was to be a last Christmas dinner for both men with Brunel in Cairo.
1859 After another sailing trip, this time to Norway, Robert became ill and died
at home on 12th October ‘of obstinate congestion of the liver followed by dropsy
of the whole system’. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. His long-