The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-02 00:00:00

APRIG 2, 1869.

THE

RAILWAY.

The Thames Tunnel—a pilgrimage to which has been
made by most country cousins who have visited London—
is at last to be converted into a practical undertaking.
Thanks to the East London Railway. Company this
gigantic failure—one of the most gigantic of even Erunel's
failures--is to be taken possession of by the steam•engine,
instead of being allowed to rot in obscurity and darkness.
In the course of a few weeks a new line of railway will
be opened from Broad-street to the London Docks, which
will connect the busy haunts of the East-end with the
classic regions of Wapping and Rotherhithe. The line
runs from Broad-street through the crowded thorough-
fares of Bishopagate, 11.Iile-end, Whitechapel-road, and
Commercial-road, on to Ratcliff-highway. Lower, from a
moral point of view, it could hardly ever sink. Physically,
however, it has still to descend, passing now under the
eastern basin of the London Docks, from whence
it passes by the back of the St. George's Workhouse
to the Thames Tunnel, and so beneath the bed of
the river southwards towards its final destination.
Wapping Station—th e present northern terminus of the line
—enjoys probably the distinction of being the most deeply
" underground " station in the world. Except, indeed,
for a direct route to Hades, it is iiflicult to suppose that
a more deeply-buried station can ever be required, sunk
as it is fifty-five feet below ground, the roof of the
station being no less than ten feet below—not high-
water mark—but the actual bed of the river. This
singular station is no less than a hundred yards in
length by forty feet wide, half of the width being
occupied by the roadway, and half by a 10ft. platform on
either side. The booking-office is of course on the surface,
and from thence, as at present advised, the unfortunate
passenger is supposed to descend to his train by means of
a staircase of some seventy or eighty steps, the process
being, of course, inverted on his return. In the matter of
ventilation this subterraneanest of stations is to stand
comparison with any. At each end of the station is a
large open shaft, up which, as up a gigantic chimney,
escapes all the foul air driven out before the engine as it
rushes through the tunnel, and down which, when the
train moves on, rushes a fresh supply of such pure air as
the upper atmosphere of London can afford to fill up the
vacuum it leaves behind. From Rotherhithe to Deptford
Lower-road Station the line is covered in with a
gigantic roof of glass and iron, the Surrey Dock
Company being afraid lest sparks from the engines
might set on fire the floating timber in their ponds !
Here we have a striking instance of what an inch may
sometimes be worth. There is an old saying, " between
the devil and the deep sea," and the Deptford Lower-
road Station is an exemplification of it. Eight more inches
of headway were imperatively required for the passage of
a train, and eight more inches were accordingly obtained
by the simple process of cutting off the nine inch brick
roofing of the sewer and replacing it by an iron cover one
inch only in thickness. A " simple process," which cost
about £3,000, or about £315 per inch ! A short open
cutting through about the most unredeemably dreary wil•
lerness to be found even east of London carries the line to
the New-road, Rotherhithe, about 600 yards beyond which
the line divides into two branches, one turning off towards
the Old Kent-road, the South London Railway, and New
Cross ; and the other continuing up to the surface level,
on which it passes at an angle right through the venerable
arches of the old Greenwich line. From this point the
line makes a sudden shoot upwards at a gradient of 1 in
00 over the Grand Surrey Canal, which it crosses on a
wrought-iron girder bridge, and thence upon a bank to
New-cross, where it terminates in a handsome independent
station. The engineer is Mr. Hawkshaw. When the line
is complete, it will form one of the most important links
that have yet been added to the yearly lengthening chain
•of metropolitan railway communication.