Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-10-21
LONDON STREETS.
A Proposed OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Is
Passenger Railways.

A Proposed ImPrOVement-Sub-Str
Passenger Railways.
Prom the London Times
Popular histories Of England always expatiate
with peculiar emphasis the discoveries or inVen-
tolls assignable to particular eras, and perhaps
there are no passages In such narratives which pro-
dnce greater impression on the reader. House
hold topics come home to everybody, and all the
more entertaining from the surprise they generally
create The fact is that after certain familiarity
with customs or implements, we can hardly con-
celve that people ever did without them, and are
astOnished accordingly when we learn that they
were only introduced in very recent years. Yet
the cOmmonest objects around come under this
category. Half our articles of food-eyen those
most nearly approaching to the character of
saries-aFe of modern date. Two centuries ago nei-
Their tea nor cabbages were known in England tur-
nips date from the reign of George |; coal fires
have not long been common and cigars were
heard of before the Peninsular war.
In the last century nobody wore trousers, and
umbrellas were ridieuled marks of efeminacy.
Take the streets, and the contrast with present
times becomes stronger still. A short time ago
there were no payements, no galleries no police
men, no cabs. As to OmnbuseS which now mono
police halt the traffic Of London, they things of
yesterday, and perhaps the original productions of
Shilliber and Cloud may still be existing in some
shed or warehouse. 1t may almost seem as if our
ancestors had fOrestalled us in these numerous in
yentisns and left US little to do but we are much
mistaken if the present tins, perhaps even the pre-
sent year. Will not De memorable Tor nOVeltleS at
least as important as any that we have mentioned.
Street railways will do more for US than hackney
coaches, and there at this moment a piece of
work in hand close to CoVant Garden, watch may
be the torerunner Of happy revolution in all
town thorOughares.
The Board of Works in making the new Covent
Garden approach, have at length resolved trying
the experiment of subway. Underneath the street
is TO be built arChed passage. with side passages
to correspond so that 1t will be easy to walk be-
low ground above, and very good reason there is
for the provision considering that there is nearly
much business to be done in one place IN the
other. The subterranean work of London is now
enormously extensive and is daily becoming more
so. All the water service, all the gas service. and
all the drainage service are conducted under ground
and the telegraph service increases TIE pressure.
As none of these be attended to without
taking up the street it follows that the streetway
is always liable to arrangement, and the traffic
stOppage. The evil, too, is multiplied by the multi
pliCatOn Of companies, for no method or arrange
ment is observed in conducting these repairs and
soon as the pavement has been laid down by one Sc
Of men it is taken up again by another The cOnset
quence is that streets. already too narrow are
narrowed still further by perpetual distractions
till traffic becomes almost impossible To show the
magnitude of the convenience which would follow
the proposed improvement we need only say that if
our thOrOughtares were provided with subways
there would at once be end to all arrangements of
the pavement, except for the repairs of the road
itself.
So manifest, indeed, Is the urgency of the case
that probably consideration but that of expense
would have been allowed to stand in the way Of re-
form. We observe, however, that the Board of
Works actually justifes the pending experiment on
the of economy and speaks of the expense as
well as the inconvenience which would be ObVated
by the introduction of sub-ways We can well be-
leye that this view Is sound. OF course such tun-
Melting would cost money, but the accommodation |
provided would be comprehensive and so permanent |
that it would be strange if there not good re-
turn for the investment All gas mains. all water |
mains, all electric wires and all house pipes would |
find their place convenient in the subway, and |
would be accessible at any moment without the |
smallest trouble. Half dozen shillings under this |
system would pay for a job costing twice as |
many pounds. Then the arrangement of drains and |
cellars might be organized with infinitely greater |
facility, and, in fact we could accomplish all our |
underground work by simply descending to kind |
of basement floor. Be it remembered, toe, that in |
the execution of the new drainage scheme stand /
already committed to considerable portion of the
required. We must dig up half our
streets it is and it would be thousand pities to
put them down again without availing ourselves to |
the utmost of so desirable opportunity.
Let no one imagine that in constructing subways |
we should be attempting any chimerica or extrava-
CANT project. We should be merely treading in the
steps of ancient generations and borrowing lesson
from times long gone by. The cities Of the Greeks
and Romans literally undermined by these /
subterrRneal structures and it by these, indeed
that they are often traced II said of Syracuse
that it contained more buildings below ground than
aboVe and Roman station is sure to offer evidence
of similar character We can hardly, indeed un.
derstand the extent to which these people carried
their arrangements for convenience and cleanliness
Bath was known as the city of the Hot Wells, and
its springs yielded natural supply of half-bOiing
" ater so abundant that one would have thought |
there was little room for artificial lavatories that
town, at all events; yet when we come upon the
tracks of Roman dwellings there we find their pri-
yate baths. and private hues and private furnaces,
just deliberately constructed if tho hot springs
had been a thousand miles off.
1t WIS the same with water supply. They took
as much pains about their aqueductS as we take
about our railways and built them at as lavish
cost. Even in ages which We are accustomed to
consider haFharOus, there Is reason TO believe that
more attention paid to these matters than there
has been until very recently among ourselves. -
work is constantly discovered of which
no good account cen be gwen, except by atrlbuting
It to purposes Of drainage. If any Of the tourists
abroad at this holiday season should be going
m old castle ruined abbey the chances are ten to
one that they will hear of "subterranean passage"
believed to exist between the ruins and some point
in the neghborhOOd. The legend is too universal to
be without foundation, and it has been piausibly
conectured that the mysterious subway was IN most
cases nothing more nor less than the great castle
sewer.
We shall look with much interest to the results of
this experiment. for case is really becoming
desperate The streets are hardly passabe as it IS
and they are likely to become less unless some
thing is done. We are improving our supplies Of
gas and water and bringing the agency of the tele-
graph more into use all which means that we are
extending our underground machinery and multi
plying the probabilities of street obstruction What
1t that rate of proceeding will be position ten
years hence? We to be approaching the solu-
ion of great problem, and determining the limits to
which q single city may be extended. We add
SQUARE after square, and suburb after suburb to
our metropolis but what is TO be done when it is
10 longer passabe for carriages, and when instead
If resigning ourselves we do now. to the loss of
. certain amount of time, are compelled TO forego
he attempt to get from part of the town to an
,ther? The number of passengers will certainly
Increase the number of vehicles will as certainly
lot diminish, and few streets will admit of being
Tidened. Then how to escape from the
imminent congestion? We see but two expedients
before US. Street railways will enconomze space
IS well as power by releasing thousands of horses
rom work, and sideways will save US from street
toppages and enable US to make the best of our +,
horOughfares as they We trust it will not be
ong before we either see both these inventions in
peration or know the reason why they are neg 6
ected.
IToo1 5o.o-nog n xooJ oburob ,,iniOtar | .