The shield had also to be replaced. It had been so battered about by the flood that another was necessary. As it kept up the earth above, and also in front, the change was both arduous and perilous. But it was accomplished without loss of life.
Three more irruptions of water occurred: the third in August, 1837, the fourth in November, 1837, and the fifth in March, 1838. But the engineer was more prepared for Father Thames’ unpleasant visits, and a platform had been constructed by which the men could escape. Unhappily, one life was lost, however, on the fourth occasion. A great rush of soil also occurred in April, 1840, accompanied by a sinking of the shore at Wapping over some seven hundred feet of surface. Happily this occurred at low tide, and the chasm was filled with gravel and bags of clay before the river rose high.
At length, on the 13th of August, 1841, Brunel descended the shaft at Wapping, and entering a small cutting, passed through the shield in the tunnel, amidst the cheers of the workmen. After all these years of arduous toil, of anxious solicitude, and of hair-breadth escapes, the end was near, and a passage under the Thames was cut. It was not completed and open to the public, however, until the 25th of March, 1843, and then for foot passengers only.
The approaches for carriages remained to be constructed, and would have been expensive works. They were to be immense circular roads, but they were never made. Perhaps that deficiency contributed to the commercial failure of the great engineering enterprise. In any case, the tunnel never paid; the Company dissolved; and the tunnel passed over to the East London Railway, who run trains through it. Its length is 1300 feet, while between it and the river there is a thickness of soil of some fifteen feet.
Though a failure as a business, yet the tunnel was a great engineering triumph. It was a marvel of perseverance, and of determined, arduous, skilful toil against overwhelming difficulties. Eighteen years passed before it was completed; and if the seven be deducted during which the work was stopped, still eleven remain as the period of its construction. Work occupying such a length of time must be costly. Could it be shortened? Would tunnel-making machinery be developed and improved so as to expedite the labour of years?
CHAPTER III.
THROUGH THE ALPS.
“Cut through the Alps? It is an impossibility; and it would never pay!”
“Yet they are about to do it. Sommeiller, an engineer, has invented, or obtained, a rock-boring machine which promises to lighten the labour considerably; and then, of course, they will shatter great quantities of earth by explosives.”