Who was John Smeaton and why was a local college and a road viaduct named after him?
One John Smeaton ,is the airport worker who helped foil an attack on Glasgow Airport in June 2007, he officially opened the new John Smeaton Community College during April 2008. The college is however, named after his namesake – the Leeds-born civil engineer. Who was this older John Smeaton after whom the college and road viaduct is named? He was born in 1724 in the parish of Whitkirk, near Leeds and grew to be a famous engineer. He was possibly the first the use the term ‘civil engineering’ to differentiate his work from engineering for military purposes. He has been described as the ‘father’ of civil engineering. The role of civil engineers is to design, build and maintain the world around us. In 1756 Smeaton was charged with the construction of the Eddystone Lighthouse. It was the building of this lighthouse, to warn ships away from the Eddystone rocks 14 miles southwest of Plymouth, that made Smeaton’s reputation. He had to build a lighthouse on a storm-lashed rock where two earlie
