No. 5. 



The Thames Tunnel. 



151 



The Thames Tunnel. 



The Tunnel has now completely reached 

 across the river — a distance of 1,200 feet — 

 and the projector and engineer had the grat- 

 ification, a short time since, of being the first 

 who walked from bank to bank, to the shaft 

 on the London side. Those shafts on both 

 sides of the river, which are intended for foot 

 passengers, are really grand things. They 

 are a succession of staircases going round a 

 vast circular excavation, between seventy 

 and eighty feet deep, and when they shall 

 be all lighted with gas, will be among the 

 most extraordinary parts of the whole struc- 

 ture. Even now they strongly realize the 

 poetic conception of the descent into the ca- 

 verns of the Egyptian mysteries; and the 

 view of the interior, nearly a quarter of a 

 mile in extent, lighted with a long succession 

 of melancholy flame, would probably have 

 suggested to a Greek the image of an en- 

 trance into Tartarus. But, in our day, the 

 sublime is well exchanged for the practical, 

 and this vast and formidable-looking cavern 

 will be stripped of its poetic associations by 

 the passage of carters and wagons, bales of 

 goods and herds of bullocks. Still it will be 

 almost impossible to divest ourselves of the 

 recollections really attaching to this work. 

 We have before us altogether a new attempt 

 to conquer nature — a great experiment to 

 make rivers passable without boat or bridge : 

 a new and capable contrivance for expedit- 

 ing the intercourse of mankind. The stone 

 bridge is at all times the most expensive 

 edifice in the world, and the bridge of boats 

 is always liable to accidents, and almost cer- 

 tain to "be broken up in every instance of a 

 flood. Besides this, the fixed bridge blocks 

 up the navigation of the river for all vessels 

 beyond the size of a barge or a small steam- 

 boat Waterloo bridge cost upwards of a 

 million — London bridge about as much 

 more — Westminster and Blackfriars bridg- 

 es, which were built at a cheaper rate and in 

 cheaper times, so constantly demand repairs 

 that they probably have cost more than either 

 of the modern ones ; but the Tunnel has the 

 advantage of giving a passage from side to 

 side of the Thames, where from the breadth 

 of the river a stone bridge would have pro- 

 bablv cost nearer two millions than one. 

 and "where no bridge could be thrown across 

 without blocking up the most important part 

 of the Thames, that portion which may be 

 called the great wet dock of London. Yet 

 the expense of the whole has not amounted 

 to more than £400,000 ; and even this is to 

 be remembered, as an expense greatly in- 

 creased by the utter novelty of the experi- 

 ment, by difficulty unforeseen in the com- 



mencement, by several irruptions of the 

 river, by the dearness of workmen's wages, 

 arising from the peculiar peril and singular 

 nature of the labour, connected with an un- 

 dertaking carried on at all hours, and wholly 

 by artificial light. All this, too, in constant 

 hazard of an influx of the river, and the va- 

 rious difficulties belonging to working in a 

 mine. The weight of a vast body of water 

 above, acting alike during summer and wint- 

 er, which at any moment might break in, and 

 against whose incursions, it was necessary 

 to fortify the outside of the tunnel as the in- 

 terior, added greatly to the difficulties of the 

 undertaking. 



The original object of the tunnel, was, to 

 convey cattle, passengers, and general traffic 

 from the rich counties on the Kent side, to 

 that great mercantile region of the metropo- 

 lis — the London, and East, and West India 

 Docks. How far this will be now effected, 

 is a question which remains to be decided 

 by experience. There can be no doubt that 

 if the traffic be not impeded by the fear of 

 passing under the river, it must be immense. 

 The convenience of escaping the long cir- 

 cuit up to London bridge, which, from the 

 various obstructions in the streets, and the 

 general difficulty of passing through the 

 most crowded portion of the city, must now 

 occupy many hours, would obviously direct 

 the whole current of the traffic into the 

 tunnel. Hitherto, no expedient has been 

 adopted to shorten the passage of the traffic ; 

 and the contrivance by which 1.200 clear 

 feet are substituted for at least three miles 

 of the most encumbered thoroughfares im- 

 aginable, must be adopted as a matter of pal- 

 pable advantage. Still there may be diffi- 

 culties in the way which practice only can 

 exhibit But any fear of the structure it-elf 

 we should regard as altogether visionary. — 

 The building of the tunnel seems as solid as 

 a rock. During the whole period from its 

 commencement, we have not heard a single 

 instance of its giving way, vast as the pres- 

 sure was from above, and trying as were the 

 damps, the ground spring, and the extreme 

 difficulty of building under water. At this mo- 

 ment the roof is obviously as free from damp 

 as the roof of St. Paul's ! — and unless an 

 earthquake should burst it, the whole fabric 

 seems much more likely to last than were it 

 exposed to the diversities of temperature, the 

 heats and frosts above ground. The especial 

 advantage of the system of the tunnel is, that 

 it can be adopted in any part of the course 

 of a river, and even in its widest part, (for 

 few European rivers exceed the breadth of 

 the Thames at Rotherhithe, unless where 

 they spread into marshes or lakes,) and yet 

 offer no impediment to the navigation. 



Blackwood's Magazine. 



