Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick drives a steam carriage in London, from Holborn to Paddington and back

Richard Trevithick runs the first locomotive on rails, pulling heavy weights a distance of 9 miiles (15 km) near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales

US engineer Robert Fulton launches a steamboat, the Clermont, on New York's Hudson river

Work begins at Cumberland in Maryland on the construction of America's National Road

William Hedley's Puffing Billy, the first steam locomotive running on smooth rails, goes to work at Wylam colliery

Scottish engineer John McAdam builds the first macadamized road, in the Bristol region of southwest England

London's first iron bridge is completed at Vauxhall

John Rennie completes a cast-iron bridge with the world's longest span, crossing the Thames at Vauxhall

Active (later called Locomotion) is the engine on the first passenger railway, between Stockton and Darlington

Work begins on the 363-mile Erie Canal that will link the Hudson River to Lake Erie

Scottish engineer Thomas Telford completes two suspension bridges in Wales, at Conwy and over the Menai Strait

London's first suspension bridge opens at Hammersmith

The locomotive Rocket, built by George and Robert Stephenson, defeats two rivals in the Rainhill trials, near Liverpool

George Stephenson's railway between Liverpool and Manchester opens, with passengers pulled by eight locomotives based on Rocket

The Göta canal is completed, enabling ships to cross Scandinavia from the North Sea to the Baltic

The paddle steamer Alburkah becomes the first ocean-going iron ship, completing the journey from England to the Niger

27-year-old Isambard Kingdom Brunel wins his first major appointment, as chief engineer to the Great Western railway

30-year-old Robert Stephenson is appointed chief engineer to the London and Birmingham railway

The first long-distance US railway, in South Carolina, carries its first passengers

Work begins on the suspension bridge over the river Avon, at Clifton, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel

The first trains run between London and Birmingham on the railway designed by Robert Stephenson

An Irish packet steamer, the Sirius, becomes the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, completing the journey to New York in 19 days

The Brunel engineers, father and son, finish an 18-year project tunnelling under the Thames between Wapping and Rotherhithe

Isambard Kingdom Brunel launches the Great Britain, the first iron steamship designed for the transatlantic passenger trade

Brunel's suspension bridge serves Hungerford market