The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-03 00:00:00

lost relations feel the effect of the order against
mourning very acutely, and as it was against them
that it was specially directed, its success must be
considered complete. For brothers, fai hers, and
husbands mourning may, it is true. still be worn,
but not without carrying a permit,,w hich any police-
man may cause to be produced as often as he thinks
fit. I find, too, that those who have lost relations
in the insurrection do not find it advisable to call
the attention of the Government to the fact ; and,
on the whole, it may be said that the usualmani-
festations of domestic grief are now impossible in
Warsaw.

---
Opening of the Charing cross Railway,

This short line from London-bridge to Charing-
cross, the forerunner of the many good and bad
schemes now known underthperovg
jeaniaearaalllynaampeeneodf
metropolitan extensions, was
yesterday with all the pomp and circumstance
which could be imparted by the visit of a large
party of directors and officials, and all the convi•
viality which could be derived from an excellenthia
dejeuner at the end of the day's proceedings, T
Charing-cross line may be regarded as th:inadt
mayirect
author of all the many plans for bringing wh
now fairly be termed suburban lines into the heart
of the city. With the vast network of lines belong-
ing to the South-Eastern, and the South-Western,
too, at Charing-cress, and with the Chatham and
Dover at Blackfriars, it has become a necessity of
existence that the great lines north of the Thames
should make a progressive step as well. With the
gigantic growth of London, and with the enor-
mously increasing numbers who now reside beyond
' it, and only travel to and fro to transact their daily
business, these metropolitan lines have become a
necessary evil. Our distances are now too great,
our time too precious for mere horse power to be of
much avail. Short lines of rail, and a pace of 25

miles an hour, are necessary in the transaction of
London's vast affairs, and in the lapse of another
ten years or so it will inevitably come to pass that
cabs and omnibuses will be superseded like the stage

coaches of old, or only used as feeders to the lines,

which will at last reduce the limits of this over•

grown province of houses to as manageable dimen

i
sions n point of time as those of a country town. It
is far from being the Railway Companies which urge

on these extension schemes. It is the public, who 1:;3,
their increased patronage make them so enormously
lucrative, that are the real promoters. One has only
to glance at the ti affic returns of the Metropolitan

Railway to see how great must be its utility to the
public, and, strange to say, though the opening of
that line at first most seriously affected the omni-
buses running west, it does not do so now, and both
rail and road are as thronged as they can well be
with convenience. In fact, it is only when com-
panies attempt to provide fot the passenger traffic of
London that its immensity is seen, and the profit of

providing channels for it becomes evident, even in
the face of the gigantic outlay requisite to bring
lines into the heart of the city.
The line from London-bridge to the South-
Western and Charing-cross was the first of the kind

projected, and though only a very short extension,
and presenting no peculiar engineering difficulties,
it has been termed the heaviest—that is to say the
most expensive for its length, ever built. When all
is paid up, it will be found to have cost very nearly,
if not quite, £l,OOO sterling per yard. Much of this
immense expenditure was no doubt due to the un-

expected opposition of the Governors of St.
Thomas's Hospital, and the compulsory purchase of
the institution_ which that opposition necessitated.
Much was also lost by the secret of the intended
route of the line not being well kept by those then
connected with the management of the South-
Eastern Railway, so that property of little value
before the railway came was purchased for a mere
song, and resold to the company at an immense
premium. These and other causes have swelled the
original estimate for the construction of the line to
a sum four times greater than was at first contem-
plated, and which, had it been foreseen at the time
would probably have made the shareholders very
timid about embarking in it. But during the in-
terval that elapsed since it was begun, the meces-

sides of passenger traffic have developed them-
e:Avec) beyonorall proportion to the length of the
extension to Charing-cross; so that, judging it by
the present standard of railway requirements, the
line is regarded as positively a cheap one, and, like

that to the Victoria station, certain to be largely
renannerAtive, Though called by the general name

of the Charing-cross line, this extension redly em•
braces two distinct schemes—viz., the line from
Charing-cross to London-brieage, and the line from
Charing-cross to Cannon-street. Yet, though legally
distinct, they aro practically one; and from the j unc-
tion at the Borough 111Arket, where the Cannon-
street brar.,eh diverges across the Thames on a mag-

nificer.At bridge, both run on the same viaducts to
C'ilaring-cross. The line leaves the London-bridge
station by a rather sharp curve of little more than
500 ft. radius. This quick turn was introduced to
propitiate the governors of St. Thomas's Hospital,
and avoid, if possible, the necessity of buying that
costly property. The curve, however, was made in
vain, and it is now deeply to be regretted that one
so sharp at such a spot was ever decided upon.
Two girder bridges of immense span and undeniable
ugliness take it over the approach toLondon-bridge.
A. viaduct on iron columns carries it through the
Borough Market, and thence the line is continued
with scarcely any curves or inclines worth speaking
of through the poor neighbourhoods lying between
the Borough and Blackiriare, across the Blackfriars-
road, and parallel with Stamford-street to the
Waterloo-road, where it makes a junction with the
South Western station which it enters by a single
line of rails,and so practicallybrings that largesyatem
of lines to Charing-cross and hereafter to Cannon-
street. From this it continues in almost a straight
line across Stamford-street and th 3 Belvedere-road
to what was once Hungerford Suspension Bridge,
but which has now been converted, if not into the
handsomest, at least into one of the strongest and
most important railway bridges over the Thames.
On this the line is taken to the site of Hungerford
Market, which has been transformed into one of
the most lofty and spacious stations ever built in
the metropolis, and which will be without a rival
till that in Cannon-street is completed, which is to
bellarger and loftier again.
This is, in brief, merely the route taken by the
new extension, but such a description gives but a
very faint idea of the nature of the works required to
complete it. In a line of only some two miles in
length there are no less than 14 iron bridges across
streets, and some of unusually great span ; two iron
viaducts on columns, two junctions made with other
,iad and
futoli by 64,
lines, and two immense railway bridges across the
Thames. These latter, of course, have been the great
41fRalties of the whole undertaking, and it is in
these, by
the wonderful skill, fertility of resource,
and capability
of utilising every inch of the valua-
ble space intrusted to him that Mr. Hawkshaw has
shown his g
line to Centleolius. The bridge which is to take the
e-treet has only just been begun, so
similar
ffitpthetree that it is to be in five
swpea threennse,edonly a
3
eti:t hand two of 125. It is to be
built of wrought iron
ogirderbrs, resting on cast
s seen now under iron cylinders,
no less than five lines of
Hun-
gerford. It is to be laid for ae
rails, to be 34ft. from the
e between
1 4n
builtft a*
in its extreme width. When this
trains will run backwards
e
and forwards is completed
. thecoutnridvearrtiackesio to
olthe bri
eke
out
and
Charing-cross and London-bridge
loom all day long. This structure has yet
but the main
This bridge has
difficu 1 ty-
ofat
so many purposes to answer, so many difficulties
to
Hungerford, has been overcome, like shuttles
provide against, so many n
opposite objects to fulfil, that it is probably the nice,
arduous work of the kind that ever has or will be
attempted across the Thames. It is a railway
bridge double the width of any in the kingdom, a foot
bridge twice as iarge as old Hungerford; nearly
one-third of the bridge is a main station; and, to
crown all, though the structure is of iron, the brick
piers of the old bridge had to be utilise& in order to
save cost. It is, in short, a bridge of compromises
and contrivances, all met and all arranged with so
much skill that it discharges each duty as if built
for that alone, is very cheap, enormously strong,
and not nearly so ugly as railway bridge; over
rivers generally are. Under no circumstances could
it have been tr
ade a very handsome bridge. The