Thames Tunnel.—With the view of effecting a ready communication for wagons and other carriages, and foot-passengers, between the Surrey and Middlesex sides of the river, at a point where, from the constant passage of shipping, it would be inconvenient to rear a bridge, a tunnel or sub-river passage was designed by a joint-stock company. The idea of tunnelling under the river, by the way, was not a novel one. In 1802 a company was got up with a similar notion, Trevethick, the inventor of the high-pressure engine, being its engineer. It came to nought; and in 1825 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Marc Isambard Brunel began his tunnel, at a point about two miles below London Bridge, entering on the southern shore at Rotherhithe, and issuing at Wapping on the other. The water broke in in 1827, and again in 1828, when six men perished. After all the funds were exhausted, and the Government had advanced no less than £246,000 by way of loan, the work, after many delays, was opened in 1843. The total, cost was £468,000. The tunnel consisted of two archways, 1,300 feet long, the thickness of the earth being about 15 feet between the crown of the tunnel and the river’s bed. As a speculation—toll 1d.—it never paid. The descent was by a deep, dirty staircase; and only one arch was open for foot-passengers. But now that the East London Railway Company have purchased it, a wholesome change has come. Some 40 trains are now running backwards and forwards through it, from Wapping to Rotherhithe, and thence to Deptford and New Cross, and vice versâ. And so, at last, the once well-nigh useless scheme, which wore out Brunel’s heart, has been, some twenty-two years after his death, made of great service to that part of London.
The Tower Subway.—In the neighbourhood of the Tunnel a subway has been formed, consisting of an iron tube, 7 feet in diameter, laid below the bed of the Thames. It belongs to a Limited Liability Company. It was commenced in February, 1869, and opened for tramway traffic on 12th April, 1870. Being a losing speculation, the tramway cars ceased to run on 7th December, 1870; but it was opened for foot-passengers on the 24th of that month, and it is the intention of the Company to continue it only as such. It is reached at each end by a spiral staircase of 96 steps. Its whole length is 1225 feet. A charge of ½d. is made for each person passing through this Tunnel. The Tunnel is well lighted up with gas, and the average heat by the thermometer is 65 degrees.
Bridges.—The communication between the northern and southern sections of the metropolis is maintained by means of various bridges. Excluding Albert Suspension Bridge, (between Cadogan Pier, Chelsea, and Albert Road, leading into Battersea Park,) commenced in 1865, and not yet open, the number is 14—as follow: 1. London Bridge, built by Rennie, and opened in 1831; it is 928 feet long, and 54 wide; it has 5 arches, of which the centre is 152 feet span, and cost, with the approaches, £2,000,000. This is regarded as one of the finest granite bridges in the world. 2. South-Eastern Railway Bridge, to connect the London Bridge Station with a new terminus in Cannon Street; this bridge, having five lines of railway, is midway between London Bridge and the one next to be named. 3. Southwark Bridge, by Rennie, was opened in 1819; it is of iron, 708 feet long, with three magnificent arches, the centre one of 402 feet span; it was a toll bridge, and cost £800,000. In 1865, it was made free, and remains so, by arrangement between the Company and the Corporation. 4. Blackfriars Railway Bridge, with four lines of rail, connects the Metropolitan Railway north of the Thames with the Chatham and Dover Railway on the south.
Steam-boat Piers.—If you wish to go eastward of London Bridge, on the north side of the river, you will find steam-boats at London Bridge to take you to Thames Tunnel Pier, Limehouse, Blackwall, and North Woolwich. On the south side, at the Surrey end of London Bridge, you can take boat for Rotherhithe, Commercial Docks, Greenwich, Charlton, and Woolwich. If you wish to go westward from London Bridge, on the north side, you can take boat thence for the following piers:—Bridge, Paul’s Wharf, Temple Stairs, Waterloo Bridge, Hungerford Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Millbank, Pimlico, Thames Bank, Chelsea, and Battersea; and on the south side, at Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Stairs, Vauxhall, Battersea Park, Wandsworth, Putney, Hammersmith Bridge, and Kew. The steamers make an amazing number of trips each way daily, between these several piers, at intervals varying with the season, and at fares ranging from one penny to fourpence. For example, the fare by the Citizen boats from London Bridge to Westminster is 1d.; to Pimlico, 2d.; Chelsea and Battersea, 3d. If you wish to go quickly from Westminster Bridge to London Bridge, you will avoid delays at piers by getting one of the penny boats which run every ten minutes from Westminster to London Bridge, only calling at Hungerford. Steamers for Kew, in the summer, run about every half-hour from London Bridge, calling at intermediate up-river piers—return ticket, 1s. From Cadogan Pier, Chelsea, you can go to Kew for 4d. And on Sundays and Mondays you can go up as far as Richmond, if the tide allow, at half-past 10 a.m. from Hungerford—return ticket, about 1s. 6d. For more distant journeys, such as to Erith, Gravesend, Sheerness, Southend, &c., by excursion steam-boats. To Gravesend and back, the fare is 1s. 6d.; Sheerness and Southend and back, 2s. 6d. Boats generally leave Hungerford Bridge for Gravesend and Erith every half-hour up to 12, and leave London Bridge at 2 and half-past 4 p.m.; they leave Hungerford Bridge for Southend and Sheerness at various times from half-past 8, calling at London Bridge, returning in the afternoon or early evening.
The Thames Embankment is one of the noblest works in the metropolis. As long ago as 1666 Sir Christopher Wren advocated such a scheme. Till Mr. Bazalgette, the engineer to the Metropolitan Board of Works, (who, by the way, planned the main drainage,) came forward with his plans, there had been scores of others, all over-costly and few practicable. The work was virtually begun in 1862. Both south and north embankments are now open. The former (or Albert Embankment) was opened the entire length, from Westminster Bridge to Vauxhall, on the 1st September, 1869; the latter, (or Victoria Embankment,) from Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars, in the middle of July, 1870. What the ultimate cost will be of both these gigantic works it is for us here impossible to tell. Already the metropolitan public hare paid for their new Thames boulevard £1,650,000.
And now—in the case of the northern embankment, for example—let us consider what vast difficulties have had to be surmounted. The words of an excellent authority put the matter very concisely as follows:—“The river had to be dammed out for some thirty-eight acres—the mud had to be dredged out down to the London clay—the granite walls had to be built below low-water mark; behind these the low-level sewer had to be constructed. Over this, again, had to come the subway, and behind all the District Railway, which runs at an average of about eighteen feet below the surface. It is not known what materials were required for the railway; but what was used for the Embankment is known. It was:—Granite, 650,000 cubic feet; brickwork, 80,000 cubic yards; concrete, 140,000 cubic yards; timber, (for cofferdam, &c.,) 500,000 cubic feet; caissons, (for ditto,) 2,500 tons; earth filling, 900,000 cubic feet; excavation, 144,000 cubic feet; York paving, 90,000 superficial feet; broken granite, 50,000 yards superficial. The railway works would make these totals still more formidable. London is now the metropolis of engineering works, but there is no part of it in which so many and such varied and difficult kinds centre as in the Thames Embankment. A section of it would be a study for engineers for all time.”
The public foot-way had been open since July, 1868. It was for the formal opening of the carriage-way that the Prince of Wales, on 13th July, 1870, drove from Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars along the Northern Embankment’s carriage-way. This is sixty-four feet wide, and the foot-way on the land-side is sixteen feet wide, and that on the river-side is twenty feet wide. Along the river-side are planted rows of trees, which in a few years will afford an unbroken line of shade, doubtless. As the railway works were completed sufficiently to admit of it, this main roadway has been extended to the Mansion-House, by means of a new street—Queen Victoria Street—referred to in a former page. There is thus one broad, airy thoroughfare between the Houses of Parliament, and the West End, and the heart of the city.