Thomas Telford. Portrait of Thomas Telford (1757- 1834), Scottish civil engineer. Telford started work as a stonemason. He taught himself archi- tecture and in 1787 became a county surveyor of public works. He planned the construction of many canals, his most famous waterways including the Ellesmere and Caledonian canals in Britain and the Gotha canal in Sweden. He directed the construc- tion of over 1600 kilometres of roads and 1200 bridges, including the road from London to Holy- head which featured the Menai and Conwy suspension bridges. He was also consulted on several early railway projects and designed docks and other buildings.