XLV.
THE TUNNELS, AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN LONDON.
DESCRIPTION OF THE LONDON HARBORS—THE CATHARINE DOCK—ENORMOUS STORE-HOUSES—HOW THE TUNNEL WAS BUILT—PLAN OF THE FRENCH ENGINEER, ISAMBERT BRUNEL—HOW THE WORK WAS CHECKED BY A BREAK IN THE BED OF THE THAMES—SIX LIVES LOST—REMARKABLE RESCUE OF THE SON OF MR. BRUNEL—ENORMOUS LABOR AND STRUGGLE AGAINST THE ELEMENTS—TRIUMPH AT LAST—THE MOST REMARKABLE RAILROAD IN THE WORLD—LONDON CROSSED UNDERGROUND BY A SERIES OF TUNNELS—HOW LIGHT AND AIR IS PRODUCED—THE NEWEST IMPROVEMENTS OF THE ROAD—THE CARS PASSING UNDER THE DWELLING OF THE DEAD.
THE DOCKS OF LONDON.
The London harbor belongs to the grandest and most interesting ones in the world. Here in vivid writing the history of the English commerce is recorded; from this point, a gigantic net of navigation is spread all over the globe. Voices from all parts of the world, of animals and men; all human races, of every color, from the deepest black to the palest white of the inhabitants on the shores of the White Sea, are met with. Merchandise is taken in here, which has undergone an uninterrupted travel of three-quarters of a year, until at last it found here a preliminary object, and the statistics alone can give an idea of the immense amount of products of all lands, which are unloaded in this harbor, and stored in the enormous magazines. The harbor-basins, where those store-houses are situated, are crowded with boats for unloading the wares, give a refuge to colossi of ships; here the steam-whistles resound; columns of smoke rise to the sky; chains are rattling and cranes are creaking. In those long, extended buildings, which are almost as large as a country town, the merchandise is stored, free of duty until it is put in the market. Oil, wine, tobacco, silk, wood, flour, etc., etc., are storedin innumerable vaults, in the six stories of the monstrous buildings. Steam is in operation to unload the ships, and small railroads allow the wares to be easily transported. The principal of these store-houses are the Catharine-docks, which are easily to be reached from the Tower. It is only separated from this gloomy witness of the reign of tyranny of the Middle Ages, by a street, and here one is astonished at the hubbub which is going on. These docks were opened to the traffic in 1828; in former times, one thousand two hundred and fifty houses, with eleven thousand three hundred inhabitants were found there. The flood-gates which lead to the basin are so deep that, at the time of tide, ships of seven hundred tons (one ton equals forty-two cubic feet) can easily enter and leave. The store-houses have a capacity of one hundred and ten thousand tons. The Catharine steamboat-wharf is especially used as pier for the steamers which come from the continent. A whole series of docks is connected with the Catharine-docks. Among them are the London-docks, with room for two hundred and twenty thousand tons of goods, and a cellar with a capacity of eight million two hundred and twenty-five thousand gallons. The tunnel of the Thames leads from that part of the city which is south of the London-docks, two miles below London Bridge, to Rotherhithe, which lies on the right shore of the Thames.
HOW THE EXCAVATIONS WERE MADE.
The Thames flows through the city of London, and divides it into two parts. Many bridges span the river, but they are insufficient in number for the great traffic, and the idea was entertained of constructing a new bridge. It must be so constructed, however, that the largest vessels could pass under it. In order to avoid this, Vesey commenced, at the beginning of this century, to build a tunnel under the Thames, which plan, although it was nearly executed, had to be relinquished in 1809, on account of too many obstacles. In the year 1823, the idea was revived. The French engineer, Isambert Brunel, looking at the keel of a ship, saw how the worms hollowed out their single passages into the ship, by corridors closely adjoining each other, and conceived the idea that a greattunnel might be constructed by proceeding in the same way. He had twelve boxes made without bottom, such as are used for a foundation for water-works. These frames he placed perpendicularly, the one next to the other, and divided each in three parts, by means of traverses, so that he had, in all, thirty-six divisions, which served as points of commencement for the excavations of so many single shafts.
Each one of these divisions was designed for one laborer; it was open in the back and in front, supported by many planks, which were movable. All the frames together were called the shield. This shield was placed before the portions of ground to be excavated; the laborer removed one of the planks, and commenced digging, placed the plank, afterwards, against the sides of the shaft, which had been digged, and supported it in this position by heavy poles; the work was continued in the same way. As soon as the laborer had advanced to the same length in all the three divisions of a frame, it was pushed forward by two dummies, one of which worked at the top, the other at the bottom, into the excavated space.
As soon as the frame had advanced, masons commenced vaulting immediately behind the laborers; the shield, however, protected the earth until the vaults were ready, and the rolls, which now had been built, in their turn served as support for the dummies, by which the single frames were pushed forward. To this so simple means of excavating, London owes her underground railroad, which had long been considered as a work impossible of achievement.
In the year 1824, an action-company was formed for the restoration of the tunnel, and soon the only point where such a work could be commenced, was found. It was between Rotherhithe and Wapping, between London and Greenwich.
SINKING THE CYLINDERS.
At this point, the shores of the Thames are one thousand one hundred and forty-four feet apart. The construction was commenced, in 1825, by building a cylinder of brick on the side of Rotherhithe, at a distance from the water of one hundred and fifty-five feet. This cylinder was forty-three feet high,half a foot thick, and had a diameter of fifty-three feet. Over the upper opening, Brunel placed an engine of thirty horse-power, which took the earth and the water from the interior, until, in that way, the cylinder had sunk sixty-six feet deep into the earth. Now he placed a second cylinder within the first, which had a diameter of only sixteen and one-half feet, and sunk it, in the same manner, eighty-two and one-half feet deep. The tunnel now commences from the first cylinder, at a depth of sixty-two and one-half feet; its breadth is thirty-nine and one-half, and its height twenty-three feet, the wall inclusive. The section is formed by two ovals, which touch each other; in that way, two vaulted corridors are made, each of which is almost sixteen and one-half feet high, and has a road for carriages, and one for pedestrians, the one next to the other. Both corridors are united by openings, in which are gas-lights, which lighten them both.
At the beginning of 1826, they commenced the horizontal labor for the tunnel proper, from the bottom of this shaft. They soon came, from a firm, clay soil, to a loose, moist layer of sand, but, some time afterwards, clay was met with again. The construction progressed slowly but steadily; every day two feet were accomplished. On the 80th of June, 1826, the construction reached the bed of the river, and on the 2d of March of the following year, they had advanced four hundred and seventy-five feet, or almost one-third of the length of the tunnel had been completed.
Although the tunnel was constructed with such a decline that at every three hundred and thirty feet, it inclined almost nine and one-half feet, the top of the tunnel approached, at the middle of the river, the bed, by three meters. Till now, every thing had gone on very well, although the obstacles and dangers for the laborers increased the more they approached the bed of the stream. Brunel did not lose his courage, and the increasing danger more than once imperiled his life. With the purpose of examining the bed of the Thames, himself, he went down into the deep with a diving-bell, on the 22d of April, 1827, which bold undertaking he repeated for severaldays. He found, at several points, the reason why the water trickled through, and, consequently, he sunk there several baskets and bags with clay and lime.
A FATAL ACCIDENT.
He purposely dropped several tools, shovels and a hammer, and when the laborers, a few days afterwards, digged out in the tunnel some watery substance, they found every one of the tools. So these tools had worked through the sand and mud beds of twenty-nine feet of the Thames, and to the depth of the tunnel; a very bad indication of the loose substance of the soil. However, the labor was continually pushed forward, when, unfortunately, several large vessels, which had drifted down with the stream, threw their anchors exactly over the tunnel. The consequence was such a violent rush of the water of the Thames, that the engines could not master it longer. All efforts were in vain. The laborers saved themselves, the tunnel was filled, within a quarter of an hour, with water and some thousand tons of sand and mud. This happened on the 18th of May, 1827. Brunel did not lose his courage. Again he went down, in his diving-bell, to the hole which had been made, and, to his great joy, he saw that the masonry had not been harmed, and his shield stood on the same spot where the laborers had left it. He commenced, at once, to repair the damage. With sixty thousand hundredweights of clay, let down in baskets, he filled the hole, and pumped the tunnel dry with several engines. A month after the disaster, the work went on again. This accident, however, seemed to be the beginning of a series of misfortunes, which threatened the continuation of the tunnel. The laborers had lost their courage, by the last disaster, which had almost proved fatal to them. One cry of alarm followed another, when masses of combustible gas filled the interior, and, at the least carelessness with the lamps, exploded, and filled the whole empty space with flames and such a terrible stench that the laborers swooned. However, up to the 12th of January, 1828, they had advanced fifty-three feet farther, when the flood broke, for a second time, through the ceiling. This unfortunate incident was paid for by the lives of six laborers. Theson of Brunel was, at that time, in the tunnel; he crept forward, blindly, in the space, which was blacker than night, then the current of water took him up, but, happily, it forced him up into the shaft. This second hole was at a distance of six hundred and twenty-seven feet from the entrance. Again, Brunel went down to the bottom of the river; the tunnel was pumped dry, and it was proved that the masonry had not been damaged.
OPENING OF THE TUNNEL.
Now the means for continuing the work commenced to give out, and it was interrupted for seven years. At last, the government supplied the means for its completion. The work commenced anew, but it proceeded very slowly; the bed of the river proved to be so soaked through that a new bed had to be formed; the shield, which, till now, had been used, was damaged, and had to be replaced by another. Three times, again, the water forced its way through the ceiling. However, the work went on, amid the uninterrupted struggles with the obstacles of the soil and the elements, and on the 13th of August, 1841, Isambert Brunel had the satisfaction to walk through the whole length of the tunnel, after continuous struggles and labor of sixteen years! After the entrance and exit of the tunnel had been constructed, the tunnel was opened, with great festivities, for the general traffic.
The gigantic labor took three million five hundred thousand dollars. Everybody passing through it has to pay one penny.
Brunel, the able architect, was made a baronet, by the queen. He died in 1849.
The tunnel, in the beginning, paid so little that those who held bonds were obliged to pay for a part of the repairs, but, in 1865, the tunnel was bought by the East London railroad company, for two hundred thousand pounds, and at the present time, forty railroad-trains are going up and down under the water of the Thames, and effect the communication between Wapping and Rotherhithe, where the great Commercial and West India-docks are found, which are the greatest in the world, and which have room for four hundred and fifty West Indiamen.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
The underground railroad in London is the most remarkable one on the globe, as its rails are laid almost entirely in tunnels. It was opened in January, 1863, and was built by the civil engineers, J. Fowler and Mason Johnson, with the purpose of connecting the four most important railroad stations on the north side of the Thames. It commences at the last station of the Great Western road, and terminates in the City. The road has six or seven halts, and is laid above the ground only, where the lots lying in the line of the road, and the buildings on them, could be cheaply purchased; for the greatest part, however, the road is underground, and leads through tunnels, which are lighted by gas. The stations have platforms of a length of two hundred and five feet, and a breadth of ten feet.
The road follows, with its double track, the direction of the streets; it curves, however, considerably, to such an extent, even, that in a distance of four English miles, mostly underground, it makes a curve, the diameter of which is six hundred and twenty-seven feet. The tunnels, constructed with an elliptic section, are about twenty-nine and one-half feet wide, and sixteen feet high. The walls are all twelve inches thick, and built of brick with hydraulic lime, on account of the moisture. The greatest ascent of the road is one foot per hundred, and the greatest depth under the surface of the earth, fifty-six feet. Good light and sufficient ventilation is not wanting, and the new locomotives, which consume their own steam and smoke, prove to be a perfect success. The stations of Baker street and Gower street, have a peculiar system of illumination. Fourteen enormous windows open on both sides of the immense, dark vaults. The daylight, which they allow to enter, falls on a perpendicular wall of white, polished tiles, and is reflected through the windows proper, sidewise in the halls. Nevertheless, the light is only feeble, gloomy, and vague. The real sun of London underground is gas. Even the passenger cars are provided with it. From six o’clock in the morning, till after midnight, a train goes up and down every twenty minutes, and the charges are less than those of the omnibuses.The road has cost about one million one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds, for the construction proved to be a very difficult one, as well on account of the water-works, gas-works, etc., which of course had to be avoided, and which often suddenly presented themselves as obstacles, but also on account of the unstable nature of the soil, which necessitated very expensive constructions.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STATION, ALDGATE, LONDON.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD STATION, ALDGATE, LONDON.
Lately, the underground railroad has been extended, and the new Aldgate station has been opened to the public.
REMARKABLE ENGINEERING WORKS.
Although this extension amounts to only half a mile in length, it has involved great expense, because of the remarkable engineering works that were required; for example, the walls of some of the immense tea warehouses of the St. Catharine Dock Company, eighty-six feet high, and four feet thick, had to be “underpinned,” and deeper foundations put in for them; but this work was successfully carried out without the slightest injury to the buildings. In spite of all obstacles, the diversion of nine great sewers, and the construction of a large sewer, five feet by three feet, beneath the rails along the whole length of the line, the works have been promptly completed. The excavations were just outside where the old City walls stood, and a few Roman relics were found. Outside the new station, twenty feet below the surface, was discovered an immense deposit of bullocks’ horns, cartloads of which were removed and sold. No other bones were with them, and how they came there in such numbers is a mystery.
There are plenty of openings for ventilation along the new line. Aldgate station is the lightest and airiest station along the line. The glass roof extends half the length of the platform; the other half length is covered by narrower roofs, supported on wooden pillars rising from the platforms themselves. The front of the station is in High street, Aldgate, a door or two from the old church of St. Botolph, and opposite to the Minories.
Entering the station-building on High street, the visitor passes by easy steps down the landing, thence by the stairs to whichever platform he desires to reach. The situation of the terminus ismost convenient, and will bring the company a large amount of business. Within a short distance, are the London and the St. Catharine’s docks, Fenchurch and Leadenhall streets, the Commercial road, and the densely populated neighborhoods of Whitechapel and Towerhill. Thus the eastern extremity of the City, and the best business parts of the East End, will be brought within a few minutes’ journey of Holborn and the West End of London, the Great Northern, Great Western, Midland, and Chatham & Dover Railways. The increase in the fares to Aldgate will be only a penny per ticket. All the trains of the Metropolitan Railway Company will run through to the new station, except the Great Western mainline trains, which are few in number. A marble tablet in the Aldgate station records the fact that this extension of the Metropolitan Railway was commenced on March 1, 1876, and gives the names of Sir Edward Watkin, chairman of the company, and his fellow-directors; the general manager, Mr. Myles Fenton; Mr. Brady, the engineer; and Messrs. Lucas and Aird, contractors.
RAPID-TRANSIT RAILWAY SYSTEM.
During Sir Edward Watkin’s visit to New York, a few months ago, he gave some very interesting particulars concerning the operation of the rapid-transit railway system of London.
The London underground railroad companies, he said, already had about sixteen miles of road in operation, and in a few months they would have twenty miles of completed road. They were negotiating for a still further extension of their routes, and would in time burrow under the whole city of London. These roads had proved to be a greater convenience to the poorer classes than to wealthy persons. The average fare collected was five cents, and the rate per mile was reduced, by a system of commutation, to one penny. These roads carried seventy million passengers a year. Heavy locomotives were used, and one thousand trains per day, each having a carrying capacity for one thousand persons, were run over them. The rate of speed was very great. The cost was five million dollars per mile, of which about four-fifths was dueto damages to real estate caused by cutting through blocks of buildings and tunneling under houses. In some places the roads ran under graveyards without disturbing the graves and the vaults above.
This enormous cost for land would be wholly saved in New York, because here the railway lines would be longitudinal with and run directly under the main streets, without invading private property. But in London, owing to the formation of the city, the underground roads pass athwart the streets and cut through private property in all directions. The citizens of London have ascertained, by practical experience, that the underground system is the best, have invested in it upward of eighty millions of dollars, and are annually increasing the investment and extending the works.
Sir Edmund said that ninety-three per cent. of the passengers on the London underground roads traveled only short distances, and only seven per cent. of them were carried to the end of the various routes.
OVERCROWDING THE CARS.
The underground line is admirably managed, the only objection to it being the overcrowding of the carriages. A London man once said to us: “I can very seldom get a seat in a train, when I travel on it, not because I am so big, but because the other fellows take up all the room. This overcrowding is a great inconvenience to ladies, who use the railroad quite as much as the other sex. It serves them in their calling or on shopping expeditions, in lieu of cabs or omnibuses. The last report of the underground railroad presented to the shareholders shows that the number of passengers carried, during the last half year, was twenty-six million two hundred thousand, which seems an enormous number, nearly fifty-two million five hundred thousand per year. One would suppose that with such patronage the road must pay.
RAILROAD UNDER WATER.
The most remarkable feature of this new work is the fact that a considerable portion of the line is built under water. The commerce of the world may be said to float and navigate directly over a part of the roof of the tunnel, whichextends southeasterly, from the Liverpool street station of the Great Eastern Railway, passing directly under the warehouses and water-basin of the London-docks, thence under the embankment, across and under the Thames river, to the New Cross station of the Southeastern Railway, thus connecting all the roads named, and also the London & Brighton and South London lines. At Shadwell and Whitechapel, magnificent stations, each four hundred and fifty feet in length, have been erected. The total cost of this new line, which is a little less than six miles in length, has been three million two hundred thousand pounds, or sixteen millions of dollars. Of the advantageous nature of this line to the public, the London papers say there is no doubt. That portion of the line under the Thames passes through the old Thames tunnel, built by the celebrated engineer, M. I. Brunel. This work, of which I spoke before, never proved of much value to the public until brought into use several years ago as a railway tunnel.