The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-04-19
Ffom ths chicago Republican.

The enormous cities of modern times
create necessities which, in simpler
conditions of society, the most active
Imagination never could have con-
ceived. One OF the most remarkable of
these wants is rapid and economical
transportation from one extremity to
the other of the dense mass of people
and buildings. The more pressing this
want, the more difficult IL becomes to
satisfy it, until mt last engineers have
gone underground to construct the
channels of traffic which it is impossible
to find room for upon the surface. This
experiment has been tried in London
with surprising success. A subterra-
ne0us railroad, miles in length, has
been in operation underneath that city
for months past, and proves $ o useful
and profitable thati it is to be extended in
every direction. That costly, but hith-
erto worthless toy, the Thames tunnel,
is to serve as the avenue by which this
wonderful enterprise will pass under
the Thames, and unite the two great
divisions of the overgrown metropolis.
The trains are moved by steam, and are
reached by spacious and convenient
Stairways leading down into brilliantly
Illuminated staton-hOuses. The long
tunnel is not lighted, except by the
lights of the engine and cars as they
rush through 1t. Ventilation is pro-
y y
apparatus, and is SO perfect that one
would not suppose himself under
ground. Trains are driven with great
rapiCity, and follow each other every
two or four minutes, but no accidents
have occurred. The rates of fare are
not higher than in the omnibusses
above. The convenience of this novel
mode of travelling is such that it is pre-
ferred by residents of London to other
ways of getting about the town. The
most ostremuneratiye part of the business,
however, is said to he the conveyance
of parcels, and even of bulky freight;
this has already attained to immense
proportions, and is constantly increas-
ing:
as London, even if we include in it the
suburban towns of Brooklyn, Jersey
City, and Hoboken, the peculiar con-
formation of its site has crowded the
commercial portion of the city SO un-
comfortabl that some means of re-
lief must be found. Indeed, so great is
the difficuIty of merchan-
disc from one side of the city to the
other. that the actual cost is as great as
that of transporting it from Boston to
New York. The success of the under
ground railway in London has natur-
ally led 10 the notion of attempting the
same remedy for the same inconveni-
ence here. A year ago bill for the
construction of such a railway, from
thellower part of the city northward,
PASSED the Legislature, but was not ap-
proved by the Governor, and since then
the project has been much discussed,
and various plans have been commend
ed to public consideration. Meanwhile
the scheme has been brought before
the present Legislature, and it seems
likely that a company will be incorpo-
rated for the construction of such a
railway. In view of this probability,
the discussion upon the subject is more
active than ever.
The first design, we believe, was to
build the tunnel for the double roadway
in Broadway, taking possession ofsuc-
cessiye sections of the street for the
purpose, making an open excavation,
and replacing the street as soon as the
masonry of the tunnel was completed.
IL seems, however, that this is imprac-
ticable, for the reason that it would dis
lodge the great mains by which the city
/ Is supplied with water, and thus de-
stroy. for the time the means of extin-
gushing fires, and stop all manufac'
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