The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-03 00:00:00

THE THAMES EMBANKMENT.
(THIS DAY.)

Outside vehicles were driven along the Thames
Embankment for the first time to-day. Shortly
before noon passengers in the Strand were
guartled by seeing several fire-engines proceeding
tow,srds the Embankment, and the time-
honon,-ed jokes as to the Thames having been
set on fire, and tho readiness of the
Board of Works to extinguish it, were freely passed.
jjau_a_dosso of these engines were eventually
stationed apposite Somerset House, and the fire-
Men, stokers, and onginemen wen• soon to be seen
divested of uniform, coat, and helmet, and
in white drill jacket and Seach cap
bu:yirg themselves with hose and tem-
porary water-tanks and engine-fires. The
cows soon spread, and Waterloo-bridge was
Slll'lll4 lined with curious lookers on ; while
ninny of the people living in the waterside streets
near found their way on to the Ellll/21.1r1k1111.11t, and
pisonemided the spacious pavement much as if the
Finbaiiik meld ai•re a recognised London
It a :is a charming scyne, and eminently unlike
any thing beheld in London bcfore. A cloudle.;
sky, a bright fierce BEIII, a smoothly flowing river,
up which the busy craft were sailing rapidly
a l'Stward with the tide, the church and shot towers,
the gildisl pinnuelos of the Palace of Westminster
on the one side, and the 111:1,1S1V0 'loan) of St. Paul's
011 the other, together with the busy life on the
ricer's brink, made up a spectitele worthy of the
Grand Canal at Venice. At half-past twelve the
six engines were drawn up at regular dis-
tances in front of Somerset House, and at a
quarter to one were joined by the large floating
steam-engine which steamed across the Thames
from the Lambeth side. Up to this time the land
engines had done little more than remain on
parade, as it were; and considerable curi-
osity was displayed by the assembled crowds
as to the meaning of their proceedings.
Now, however, this became clear enough.
The hose were ready fixed, and pumping the
water from the river on to the roadway portion
of the Embankment immediately set in. The
long serpentine tubes, of coarse leather, are,
at the time of our going_ to press, all
conveying water to the Embankment, and
portions of it are already some inches
deep in water, while the foot-pavement, from its
superior elevation, remains high and dry. The
loose dust and rubble will be solidified into
something like a concrete road by being thus
ternporanly steeped in water, and the process of
rolling and finishing will be made at once more
effectual and more easy. The time has arrived
when this kind of treatment is called for.
Striking improvements have been effected on the
Embankment within the last few days. The rough
mounds and deep hollows have been removed and
filled up. The broad and handsome foot pave-
ment by the river front is partly laid down. The
portion of the Embankment under the dry arch
of Waterloo-bridge has been levelled, and
a free eminnunication made between the roadway
opposite the Temple and Somerset House and that
in front of the Adelphi. But more striking than
all is the absence of large rubbish and contractors'
materials. The ugly uprights, the huge
blocks, the cross-beams like so many
primitive gallows-trees, the broken bits and scraps
which made the whole space look like a gigantic
shipbreaker's yard, have disappeared. So have the
rude roadways, the deep ruts, the rugged path-
ways, the dust-heaps, and the piles of nondescript
dirt. As we write, the whistling of tho fire-
engine men, and the monotonous puff, puff,
of the steam is going steadily on, and after a day's
soaking, the noble space of roadway enclosed by
the Embankment may be made, with the aid of the
steam rollers recently in use at Park-lane, as level
as a bowling-green in a few days.