The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1883-12-08
NUMBER 81.
Underground Railways IN London.
KS every American Knows who has

AS every American Knows who has
visited London, the underground rail
way system is one of the most extraor-
nary systems of locomotion in the world.
Subterranean London is literally hoLey.
combed by tunnels branching off in all
directions, 81 that, while wagons and
hansoms rumble overhead, innumera-
ole trains shrek and groan as they
thread their way in darkness beneath
the busy thoroughfares. When it was
proposed to construct this underground
railway system, much opposition was
made to the scheme. 1t was believed
that the laundering of the trains would
shake down the houses above, and that
to enter the long tunnels would be GER
tain death to any person venturesome
enough to attempt it.
When the opposition was overcome,
after long struggle between the pro-
moters and the citizens, and the first
portion of the system was completed, it
was soon discovered that instead of the
underground railways being a public
danger, they were in reality a great
public benefit. They took an enormous
amount of traffic off thealready crowded
public thoroughfares, and provided
speedy means of communication with
the most distant parts of the metropolis
such as was impossible under the old
| fashioned modes of traversing the
streets Of London. Indeed, it is owing
TO the underground railway system that
the English metropolis now possesses
means of rapid communication such as
is possessed by no other large city in the
| world. The system consists of two
rings of subterranean tunneling-an
inner and an outer. The outer ring was
long ago completed. Within the next
six months the inner circle will be COM
pleted, at cost of something like Sl5,-
700, 900 mile. Underground London
will then be ramifed by complete re-
ticulation OF tunnels, and it will be pos
sible to reach any part of the gigantic
suburbs in less than an hour.
When the original objectors to the
underground railway system appeared
before the promoters, they based their
opposition to the scheme mainly on two
grounds-that it would cause vast
diminution in the value of property,
and that the noXious vapors and the
locomotive smoke would prove highly
dangerous to public health and safety.
Neither of these objections has been
| seriously realized. Where proper
| ty was injured the Metropolitan Rail
way Company gave compensation; and
as for foul yapors, all danger from that
source was obviated by the numerous
air holes which were bored through the
roof of the tunnel, and the open charac-
ter which was given to all the stations.
One danger, however, which was not
dreamed of in connection with the un-
derground railways, was the pr ;sence of
internal machines in the tunnels, and
the instantaneous death and injury of
unsaspecting passengers by their explo-
SION. The terrible affairs which occur
red in London of late, cannot be attri-
buted to an explosion of fire damp.
With trains travelling continuously at
three minute intervals through the tun-
nels, foul air would inevitably be driven
through the air holes or out at the open
stations, which are situated at very
short distances from each other.