This is the story of how our modern world was forged - in rivets, grease and steam; in blood, sweat and human imagination. The 19th century saw the creation of some of the world's most incredible feats of engineering. Deborah Cadbury explores the history behind the epic monuments that spanned the industrial revolution from Brunel's extraordinary Great Eastern, the Titanic of its day that joined the two ends of the empire, to the Panama Canal, that linked the Atlantic and Pacific oceans half a century later. This book recreates the stories of the most brilliant pioneers of the industrial age, their burning ambition, extravagant dreams, passion and rivalry as great minds clashed. Such as Arthur Powell-Davis, the engineer behind the Hoover Dam, who dreamed of creating the largest dam in the world by diverting the entire Colorado river, one of the worlds most dangerous and unpredictable; or John Roebling and his son Washington who both lost their lives creating the longest suspension bridge ever built, the Brooklyn Bridge. These are also the stories of countless unsung heroes - the craftsmen and workers without whose perseverance nothing would have been achieved.