THE TUNNELS, AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN LONDON.

DESCRIPTION OF THE LONDON HARBORS-THE CATHARINE DOCK-ENORMOUS STORE-HOUSES-HOW THE TUNNEL WAS BUILT-PLAN OF THE FRENCH

ENGINEER, ISAMBERT BRUNEL-HOW THE WORK WAS CHECKED BY A BREAK IN THE BED OF THE THAMES-SIX LIVES LOST-REMARKABLE RESCUE OF THE SON OF MR. BRUNEL-ENORMOUS LABOR AND STRUGGLE AGAINST THE ELEMENTS-TRIUMPH AT LAST-THE MOST REMARKABLE RAILROAD IN THE WORLD-LONDON CROSSED UNDERGROUND BY A SERIES OF TUNNELS-HOW LIGHT AND AIR IS PRODUCED-THE NEWEST IMPROVE MENTS OF THE ROAD-THE CARS PASSING UNDER THE DWELLING OF THE DEAD.

The London harbor belongs to the grandest and most interesting ones in the world. Here in vivid writing the history of the English commerce is recorded; from this point, a gigantic net of navigation is spread all over the globe. Voices from all parts of the world, of animals and men; all human races, of every color, from the deepest black to the palest white of the inhabitants on the shores of the White Sea, are met with. Merchandise is taken in here, which has undergone an uninterrupted travel of three-quarters of a year, until at last it found here a preliminary object, and the statistics alone can give an idea of the immense amount of products of all lands, which are unloaded in this harbor, and stored in the enormous magazines. The harbor-basins, where those storehouses are situated, are crowded with boats for unloading the wares, give a refuge to colossi of ships; here the steam-whistles resound; columns of smoke rise to the sky; chains are rattling and cranes are creaking. In those long, extended buildings, which are almost as large as a country town, the merchandise is stored, free of duty until it is put in the mar ket. Oil, wine, tobacco, silk, wood, flour, etc., etc., are stored

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in innumerable vaults, in the six stories of the monstrous buildings. Steam is in operation to unload the ships, and small railroads allow the wares to be easily transported. The principal of these store-houses are the Catharine-docks, which are easily to be reached from the Tower. It is only separated from this gloomy witness of the reign of tyranny of the Middle Ages, by a street, and here one is astonished at the hubbub which is going on. These docks were opened to the traffic in 1828; in former times, one thousand two hundred and fifty houses, with eleven thousand three hundred inhabitants were found there. The flood-gates which lead to the basin are so deep that, at the time of tide, ships of seven hundred tons (one ton equals forty-two cubic feet) can easily enter and leave. The store-houses have a capacity of one hundred and ten thousand tons. The Catharine steamboat-wharf is especially used as pier for the steamers which come from the continent. A whole series of docks is connected with the Catharine-docks. Among them are the London-docks, with room for two hundred and twenty thousand tons of goods, and a cellar with a capacity of eight million two hundred and twenty-five thousand gallons. The tunnel of the Thames leads from that part of the city which is south of the Londondocks, two miles below London Bridge, to Rotherhithe, which lies on the right shore of the Thames.

The Thames flows through the city of London, and divides it into two parts. Many bridges span the river, but they are insufficient in number for the great traffic, and the idea was entertained of constructing a new bridge. It must be so constructed, however, that the largest vessels could pass under it. In order to avoid this, Vesey commenced, at the beginning of this century, to build a tunnel under the Thames, which plan, although it was nearly executed, had to be relinquished in 1809, on account of too many obstacles. In the year 1823, the idea was revived. The French engineer, Isambert Brunel, looking at the keel of a ship, saw how the worms hollowed out their single passages into the ship, by corridors closely adjoining each other, and conceived the idea that a great

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HOW THE EXCAVATIONS WERE MADE.

tunnel might be constructed by proceeding in the same way. He had twelve boxes made without bottom, such as are used for a foundation for water-works. These frames he placed perpendicularly, the one next to the other, and divided each in three parts, by means of traverses, so that he had, in all, thirty-six divisions, which served as points of commencement for the excavations of so many single shafts.

Each one of these divisions was designed for one laborer; it was open in the back and in front, supported by many planks, which were movable. All the frames together were called the shield. This shield was placed before the portions of ground to be excavated; the laborer removed one of the planks, and commenced digging, placed the plank, afterwards, against the sides of the shaft, which had been digged, and supported it in this position by heavy poles; the work was continued in the same way. As soon as the laborer had advanced to the same length in all the three divisions of a frame, it was pushed forward by two dummies, one of which worked at the top, the other at the bottom, into the excavated space.

As soon as the frame had advanced, masons commenced vaulting immediatety behind the laborers; the shield, however, protected the earth until the vaults were ready, and the rolls, which now had been built, in their turn served as support for the dummies, by which the single frames were pushed forward. To this so simple means of excavating, London owes her underground railroad, which had long been considered as a work impossible of achievement.

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.

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,

SINKING THE CYLINDERS.

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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 30th 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.

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 unfor tunate incident was paid for by the lives of six laborers. The