Seven Wonders of the Industrial World

Page 2 of 10

• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Bell Rock Lighthouse
• 3. The 'Great Eastern'
• 4. Bazalgette's London sewers
• 5. The Transcontinental Railway
• 6. The Brooklyn Bridge
• 7. The Panama Canal
• 8. The Hoover Dam
• 9. End-note
• 10. Find out more
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The Bell Rock Lighthouse

Robert Stevenson's Bell Rock Lighthouse was created off the east coast of Scotland between 1807 and 1811, when the world was very different from how it is today. Stevenson, the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson, had dreamed for years of making his mark on the world, by bringing light to the treacherous Scottish coast. He aimed to take on the most dangerous place of all, the Bell Rock, a large reef 11 miles out to sea, dangerously positioned in the approach to the Firth of Forth.

'... the oldest offshore lighthouse still standing anywhere in the world.'

In 1799, over 70 ships went down in a violent storm that raged along the coast, yet still the authorities opposed his plan. How could anyone build a lighthouse 11 miles out to sea, on a rock that was submerged by up to 16 feet of water for most of the day? Battling against the odds, Stevenson did eventually build his lighthouse, and to this day it shines out across the North Sea, the oldest offshore lighthouse still standing anywhere in the world.

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Published: 2003-08-11