New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-06-04
UNDER LONDON'S BUSIEST SiOT.
EXCAVATIONS FOR THE CENTRAL STATION or
THREE tt NNEI. ROADS
From The London Daily News.

THREE TUNNEL ROADS
From The London Daily News
That marvellous piece Of engineering work
down under the roadway at the Mansion House
is just approaching the close 81 one very i'm
portant stage, though the whole work will GER
tany not be finished till November and per-
haps not then. Anybody privileged o. 60 down
below there cannot fail to boz amazed that il
should have been found possible d. Do Wha, has
been done while the full tide OF LOBdon's traffic
has been going on just overhead When they
began work here the whole OF the great *
panse Of roadway had a solid earth f.urda-
ton. except that the ground was raminpl by
an astonishing tanSle Il al sorts ~ pipes rang
ing from the old wooden water pipes o. % past
age up to hydraulic mains and the pneumatic
tubes Now, the space down below the road Is
another world Of gloomy galleries and lmpene-
trable voids' dimly iilumned boy electric glow
lamps, and peopled by whole host % dusky
gnomes, who still seem to be- Wrgglng their
way down into the bowels of the earth.
There is d great circular gallery running all
round just under the road, and from this pas
saSes shoot Off in various directions. upward AID
downward. Underneath this is a corresponding
gallery IN which the various serylcts-gas
water hydraulic power, pneumatic dispatch
telegraph and telephones shave all been reduced
from chaos TO orderly system, and Do there IN
the gloom very impressively suggestive ~ the
veins and arteries through which rushing
the life currents and nervous pulsatons ~ the
tremendous world whose dun echoes roll sulculy
through the weird obScurty.
The great space in the centre of those TWO
suhteTanean galleries seems SIN g. boz alan-
doued 10 chaos. and is one impeuetrahl, ys..rv
OF glowing lights and dark shadows steel g.rIers
and brick walls and dusky figures that look %
be- hOpelessly laboring 10 evolve order out u
the confusion. The booking office u the Central
London Railway will be here. and from Do, thick
Of the disorder black. unfathomabe shafts drop
down perpendiCularly To the railway platforms
below. In these shafts will probably run ~ and
down the five hydraulic lifts that Will carry up
and down ninety or a hundred people az time.
The roadway. which formerly was solid IS
now nearly all Of il supported on steel grdtrs
and what remains temporarily propped ~ on
balks Of timber and brick walls will iu the
course Of two or three weeks get its steel beams
underneath II and the timber and the bricks
will be knocked away. There will be a mass OF
concrete laid above the grders and when that
has had four or five days 10 dry and harden
asphalt will cover it all The work has been
done In ten or eleven sections. and only one OF
these sections has now 10 be done and this most
difficult and troublesome engineering feat will
have been got safely through
There will never again be any need 20 break
up the roadway between the Bank and the
Mansion House. and probably before the end ~
the year there will be light and convenient
subway all round this busy space 10 be- reached
By "A short flight of steps from either of the
street corners. The South London Electric
Railway and the City and Waterloo Will have
direct communication with the subway by
slopes
1t is interesting 10 learn that the whole OF The
great and intricate system OF steel girderS and
pillars upon which the roadway AT the Mansion
House is being laid has already been erected
eXperimentally in a field at Derby. The llS.-
ness having been thus rehearsed, as IL were, the
whole fabric has been brought section uy Sec
ton and put here in the heart of London. Il
seems probable that the extensive obstruction
on the pavement in front OF the Royal Exchange
will not be cleared away till toward this tine
next year.