Short answers, pulled from the story.
Thomas Telford was nicknamed the Colossus of Roads, a pun on the ancient Colossus of Rhodes. The name was given to him by his friend Robert Southey, the poet who eventually became Poet Laureate and who later wrote Telford's biography.
The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is a cast-iron aqueduct designed by Telford over the River Dee in the Vale of Llangollen, stretching more than a thousand feet at a height of 126 feet above the valley floor on nineteen arches. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009 and required Telford to invent new construction techniques, including using boiling sugar and lead as a sealant on the iron joints.
The Menai Suspension Bridge, built between 1819 and 1826, spanned 580 feet across the Menai Strait and was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its completion. Rather than cables, Telford used individually linked iron eye bars, each 9.5 feet long, to carry the deck.
Telford was appointed the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1820 and held that post until his death in 1834, a tenure of 14 years. His presidency reflected his standing as the leading civil engineer of the early nineteenth century.
Thomas Telford was born on the 9th of August 1757 at Glendinning, a hill farm three miles east of Eskdalemuir Kirk in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. His father, a shepherd, died shortly after his birth, and Telford was raised in poverty by his mother Janet Jackson.
Telford published poetry between 1779 and 1784 and contributed articles on architecture, bridge-building, and canal-making to the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. His autobiography, The Life of Thomas Telford, Civil Engineer, written by himself, was published posthumously in 1838.