The Underground World: A mirror of life below the surface

by Thomas Wallace Knox

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 several days. 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. The son 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.