New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-02-13
An UNDERGROUND RAILWAY.

How to get out Of New ok" is problem
which il every day becoming more difficult
and more important for us to solve; but 1t is
not the only, or even the most pressing prob
lem of the kind we have to deal with. How
" 70 get through New-Yorkn claims first con-
sideration. 1t ought to weigh on the minds OF
busy people quito as much as the problem
- How TO difuse intelligence from fixed
island over a Hundred leagues of ocean "
weighed upon the mind of Charles Reade's dis
tressed hero on his Pacific rock. Now, there
ia only one city in the world where there is
batitually a pressure and rush of traffic equal
10 that which blocks up Broadway during the
busy hours of the day. The traffic over London
Bridge. and at that fearful junction OF con-
tending streams where Grace Church-st and
King Wiliam-st. meet, certainly exceeds any
thing which is usually TO be seen IN Broadway;
but although London is very much larger
city than New York, yet the peculiar shape OF
this island, forcing nearly all the traffic into
one great channel, brings our difficulties in the
way of street progress nearly up to those OF Lon
don, where half dozen great tboroughfares,
running different ways, draw off the whirl OF
popular movement into so many various direc-
tions. 1t is certain that London, that province
covered with houses, city with three millions
and quarter of population, and with five or
six Broadways, is far more easy to get about
in any direction than New-York. Ask any
Londoner now in New-Y ork whether he thinks
it easier to get from Blackfriar's Bridge to
Paddington, traversng nearly the whole of
London, or from TIE TRIBUNE Office to the
Fifth Avenue Hotel, and he will smile at the
comparison. Let us see what Londoners have
done to make it easy to traverse London.
To begin with, they have grit it round,
SPAWNED it across, intersected it here there, and
everywhere with network OF railways. In
London it is more thoroughly understood that
only railway communication can deal with the
difficulties of great metropolitan traffic. Lon
don certainly has not gained in beauty by the
development of this principle. Almost every
street is crossed somewhere by railway
bridge, compared with which the demolished
Loew Bridge was dream of light and airy
loneliness. But Londoners have to choose be-
tween tho picturesque and the convenient;
and as their city never had much street beauty
to boast Of, they have wisely thought the little
it had not worth preserving Mt the cost of ease
and comfort. The resident in London now
goes to his suburban home, wherever it is by
railway. The traveller can leave his hotel-yard
at Charing Cross, in Victoria-st., at London
Bridge, almost anywhere, by railway, and 90
right on to Liverpool or Edinburgh, to Dover or
Folkcstone. People who merely want to cross
London in the day cross it by railway. For this
latter purpose the Underground Railway has
become an indispensable necessity. Take tho
underground line which runs from the Black
friar region to the Paddington region-the Me-
tropolitan Railway, rs it is fairly called, for 1t
wends its way under some of the most COM
mercial and some of the most aristocratic, some
of tho poorest and some of the richest quar-
tiers of London. Its stations puncture the Me-
tropolis at many places along tho line. 1t is
used regularly twice day by thousands of
persons who have never traversed its whole
length. 1t Is as pleasant travelling rs any
other. Slow-going people, who "did MT seep
underground journeying, were pleased to cali,
it "the Sewer" at first, but. they were soon
glad to make use Of it In order to get easily,
In O few minutes, to point which it would
require couple of hours Of jolting to arrive
at yer-ground. The Underground Railway
principle has, in fact, been the one great sticg
cess of London loeofnotiou in our times, and it
is now being developed in every direction.
The Underground. Railway is being brought
into immediate connection with the 0yerground
Railway Thus it offers direct facilities to
three classes OF persons-tho suburban resident
lapd IN London almost everybody of moderate
means is suburban resident n0yl who can