Ixv 



The successful completion of the East and West India Docks, 

 and of the communications leading to these important depots, ob- 

 tained for Mr. Walker the appointment of Engineer for the Commer- 

 cial Docks, which, with all improvements and enlargements up to 

 the present time, have been executed from the designs and under 

 the direction of himself and his partner, Mr. Burges. 



The satisfactory manner in which these works were accomplished 

 led to other appointments under the public Boards, who, from that 

 time to the day of his death, consulted Mr. Walker on every 

 engineering work of importance. His numerous and important 

 labours as a Civil Engineer, for the last forty years, are well known. 

 Among the great works with which he was connected, we may 

 indicate, as especially worthy of note, Vauxhall Bridge, the 

 Victoria Bridge over the Clyde at Glasgow, the improvements 

 of the river Clyde (which from the death of Mr. Telford up to a 

 recent date were under Mr. Walker's direction), the great repairs 

 of the Caledonian and Crinan Canals, the drainage of the Middle 

 Level by a cut of thirty miles in length, the coifer-dams and 

 river- wall of the new Houses of Parliament, the Netherton Tunnel 

 and other important works carried out by the Birmingham Canal 

 Navigation Company, the Pier and Harbour of Granton, the im- 

 provements of the Harbour at Belfast, and the Harbour works 

 at Dover. All these and many others, such as the designs and 

 execution of the Harbours of Refuge at Alderney, Dover, and 

 Harwich, the Tyne Piers, and the completion of the Plymouth 

 Breakwater, were under the direction and superintendence of 

 Mr. Walker. To them may be added, what is perhaps the most 

 lasting monument of his skill, the various Lighthouses of the 

 Corporation of the Trinity House. The Bishop Rock Lighthouse, 

 on the Scilly Islands, the erection of which was attended with 

 peculiar difficulties successfully overcome by Mr. Walker, will 

 rank with the foremost of the great structures of that class reared 

 by Smeaton and by Stevenson. 



Mr. Walker's sound judgment and high character as an Engineer 

 caused him to be frequently consulted by the Corporation of the 

 City of London on the various engineering works under their 

 jurisdiction ; among which may be named the City Sewers, the 

 Navigation of the Thames, and the Thames Embankment. The 



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