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.
Lately, the underground railroad has been extended, and the new Aldgate station has been opened to the public.