The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-12 00:00:00

Opening of the Charing-cross Railway,

This, the first great link in the proposed new system of
metropolitan communication by rail, was opened in a quiet
businesslike way yesterday, and at once got into work with
an amount of passenger traffic which gave a good idea of
the immense public convenience the line will prove when it
is complete to Cannon-street. The fact of the opening
seemed far from being generally known, yet even the earliest
trains were filled. The first that left the station was the
7.10 for Greenwich—one of the 70 which will now run daily
between Charing-cross and Greenwich at intervals of a
quarter of an hour from 7 in the morning till (from London)
12.25 at night. The fares are, if anything, below the usual
Parliamentary standard, second. class to Greenwich being
only 61. Mid llent trains also start frequently from 9 a.m.
till 10.30 at night. The trains, however, are mere beginners,
and meant to get the whole line at all its points and sta-
tions into thorough working order before the through traffic
to the great southern lines is organised. As yet the ter-
minal station is a temporary one, the splendid station build •
ing requiring at least two months more for its completion,
when the hoardings will be removed and disclose a square
with a facsimile of old Charing-cross in the centre, backed
by a noble pile of edifices worthy of the situation the oom•
pany has been so fortunate as to secure. It is nearly four
years since this line was caumenced; it is to be hoped that
another two years more will see it completed, as it ought
to be, with its line to Cannon-street, and its subway under
the Strand, leading into the cutting which will give access
to the Great Northern, the Euston, and the Midland sta-
tions. When that great part of the plan is completed we
shall have done a great deal towards vanquishing the
obstacles of this city of inconvenient distances. It is,
perhaps, hopeless to speak of relieving the trafAc of
our overcrowded streets. Only the Thames Embank-
ment and new thoroughfares can do that. But if the me-
tropolitan railways do not reduce the traffic in the streets,
they at least check the alarming tendency it shows to in•
crease each year, and open out new routes by which the so-
called thoroughfares may be avoided. The Charing-cross
line, though scarcely two miles long from end to end, has,
as we have said, been nearly four years in construction, it
being in some parts the most difficult line, and in all parts
what is termed the heaviest, that, for its length, has ever
been built. It runs entirely on bridges or arches, there be-
ing no less than 17 bridges and 190 arches, of which latter
18 are taken over streets and three over courts, Of the 18
bridges one crosses the Thames, the others cross great main
thoroughfares. Of the Thames bridge it is unnecessary
now to speak, beyond saying that as a specimen of iron
work it has no superior in the world, and yesterday it
proved as rigid as the earth itself under its growing traffic.
Those over the streets are among the longest single street
spans ever built, and are beyond doubt the ugliest ever yet
put up by any engineer. When a merely nominal outlay
might have made them ornamental, Londoners will hold
Mr. Hawkshaw, and him only, guilty of cruelly disfiguring
some of their best streets, such as the southern approach
to London-bridge, which has been honoured by the ugliest
viaduct of all. Tho quantity of wrought-iron in the
Charing-cross-bridge is 5,000 tons and of cast-iron 2,000
tons. The bridges over the streets contain 3,250 tons of
wrought-iron and 250 tons of cast-iron ; 151,000 yards of
brickwork with 41,000 yards of concrete were required to
complete the arches, and 9J,000 cubic yards of earthwork
have been made. From Charing-cross in a short time ac-
cess will he given to almost every part of the south of Bng-
land, and it is to be hoped that before long it will offer the
tam, facilities for the great lines running north.