Thomas Elliot Harrison

Blue plaque on a house in Whitburn Village

Thomas Elliot Harrison was brought up in the NE of England.   He worked for & with, & learned from, the Stephensons & other engineers of the time.

A woodcut of Victoria Viaduct under construction about 1837 for the Durham Junction Railway
Harrison was the acting engineer for this bridge over the Wear at Fatfield 

Victoria viaduct in its bucolic glory by Carmichael (see blog post for 21 April 2017) 
Those elegant arches carried ore & molten metal to Consett, as well as Lambton tanks to Harraton (Peter Vout)

A woodcut of Harrison's 1879 railway bridge at Wearmouth - with the old road bridge behind
By 1879 Harrison had been chief engineer of the NER for quarter of a century

Wearmouth Railway Bridge in 1902 with road bridge behind & Lambton staiths to the fore

Note that the above bridges are features of railways covered on the blog last week - Victoria Viaduct (named in the queen's coronation year) connected to the Stanhope & Tyne route, while the Wearmouth Bridge allowed the extension of what was the Brandling Junction across the Wear into Sunderland town.

Harrison painted in 1884 by Ouless

Harrison was chief engineer of the North Eastern Railway from its beginnings until he died at Whitburn in 1888.   This was a period of huge expansion for the NER, so Harrison was at the heart of planning & design of many works, including Tyne Dock.

Thomas Harrison is covered quite well on Wikipedia and Grace's Guide.    Some of his work is covered by web images.

A booklet available about Harrison