Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

CONSTRUCTING THE NEW HIGH-LEVEL OUTFALL SEWER FROM PLUMSTEAD TO CROSSNESS. Putting in the concrete round moulds. {Photo, E. Milner.) THE WONDERFUL DRAINAGE SYSTEM OF LONDON. BY THE EDITOR. An account of the Works by which the Largest City in the World is drained, and of the system used for disposing of the vast quantity of Sewage that has to be dealt with daily. THE prudent house-hunter is careful to investigate fully the water supply of any house in which he may be inter- ested, and also its drainage system. The sec- ond is the complement to the first. The ad- vantages of an abundant supply of good water are greatly lessened if there be and Dr ’ 11 no proper provision for carry- ing off all the water that may be used in the bathroom, sinks, closets, etc. For an isolated house a system of cesspools may serve, but where many dwellings are packed closely together some other method of (1,408) getting rid of waste water and objectionable and dangerous sewage is necessary. The problems connected with the drainage of London, the world’s greatest and most popu- lous city, have exercised for a hundred years or more the minds of the authorities responsible for its f>ro^^em of Draining sanitation. It may be said London with justice that the very im- provement of the water supply has rendered these problems more and more difficult to solve; while the gradual covering in with houses and paved streets of 120 square VOL. III.