The Underground World: A mirror of life below the surface

by Thomas Wallace Knox

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 is most 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 due to 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.